Collections of encores are commonplace in the recording catalogs, but violinist Leonidas Kavakos comes up with something new here: a collection of showstoppers. With a couple of little Russian tunes from Stravinsky to ramp up, and Fritz Kreisler's arrangement of Dvorák's Humoresque in G flat major, Op. 101, No. 7, to wind things down, the rest is a nonstop cavalcade of extreme violin, with the various national traditions of the great virtuosos (Sarasate, Wieniawski) and composer showpieces (Richard Strauss and, unexpectedly ...
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Collections of encores are commonplace in the recording catalogs, but violinist Leonidas Kavakos comes up with something new here: a collection of showstoppers. With a couple of little Russian tunes from Stravinsky to ramp up, and Fritz Kreisler's arrangement of Dvorák's Humoresque in G flat major, Op. 101, No. 7, to wind things down, the rest is a nonstop cavalcade of extreme violin, with the various national traditions of the great virtuosos (Sarasate, Wieniawski) and composer showpieces (Richard Strauss and, unexpectedly, Benjamin Britten) providing variety. It all builds to Paganini's Variations on God Save the King (track 14), which you can sample for a taste of the violin's outer possibilities: it's one of Paganini's really over the top pieces and is for some reason less well-known than the others. Kavakos tosses off the whole thing with trademark nonchalance, and really this is a program that would have blown the minds of an audience a century ago and still amazes today. ~ James Manheim, Rovi
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