BENDA, PICHL, VRANICKY: Violin Concertos - Gabriela Demeterová, Prague Chamber Orchestra

Benda, Pichl, Vranický - three superb violinists, composers and chapel masters who worked in the services of the nobility and the King. All three of them can be called ambassadors of Czech musicality in the Europe of the time. Their journeys led from Prague and Brno to the major European musical centres (Dresden, Vienna, Milan, Warsaw, etc.) and encountering the greatest composers of the time - Mozart, Haydn, C. P. E. Bach, Quantz and Zelenka. Their oeuvre spans the style and forms of late Baroque to high Classicism. However, in the field of the violin concerto they could demonstrate to the full their compositional invention and virtuosity, so great as to remain a challenge to present-day performers. Remarkable too is the mastery and bird's-eye view with which the charming violinist Gabriela Demeterová squared up to this challenge on this CD.

Even such virtuosos as the three composers in question would be hard to put to find fault with this splendid interpretational performance. And, even the most renowned virtuosos of Classicism would probably envy her the video clip attached to the recording.

František Benda
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major
1. Allegro ma non molto 09:06
2. Largo 07:18
3. Allegro 06:21
Václav Pichl
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major, Op. 3 No. 1
4. Allegro sostenuto 08:24
5. Adagio maestoso 04:14
6. Rondo. Tempo di Menuetto (Allegro) 05:23
Antonín Vranický
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in C major
7. Allegro giusto 11:43
8. Adagio. Romanza. Andante cantabile 06:39
9. Finale (Alla Pollaca. Allegretto) 07:27