Welcome to Hyperion Records, an independent British classical label devoted to presenting high-quality recordings of music of all styles and from all periods from the twelfth century to the twenty-first.

Hyperion offers both CDs, and downloads in a number of formats. The site is also available in several languages.

Please use the dropdown buttons to set your preferred options, or use the checkbox to accept the defaults.

Click cover art to view larger version
Track(s) taken from CDA67703

Romance in D major, Op 23

composer
1910; first performed in Warsaw in April 1913

Alina Ibragimova (violin), Cédric Tiberghien (piano)
Recording details: July 2008
Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk, United Kingdom
Produced by Andrew Keener
Engineered by David Hinitt
Release date: May 2009
Total duration: 6 minutes 10 seconds

Cover artwork: Water Nymph (detail). Otto Theodor Gustav Lingner (1856-1917)
Private Collection / Agra Art, Warsaw / Bridgeman Images
 

Reviews

‘Ibragimova and Tiberghien make a winning combination, both in the sweltering sensuality of the central works and in the more conventional late-Romantic effulgence of the warm-hearted Sonata of 1909 … this repertoire should be high on the priority list of all those interested in 20th-century violin music, and it's not easy to imagine a stronger case being made for it than here’ (Gramophone)

‘[I would] recommend Alina Ibragimova with pianist Cédric Tiberghien as prime representatives of the numinous in Szymanowski's violin chamber repertoire’ (Gramophone)

‘This is a performance that shows Ibragimova's art at her remarkable best; at one moment poised, the next playing with abandon, she is one of the most expressive violinists around’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘Ibragimova and Tiberghien produce beautifully characterised accounts, whether in the veiled contours of the Nocturne and the explosion of rhythmic energy that follows it in the Tarantella, or in the refined exoticism of Mythes, with its strange mixture of classical evocation and sensuous indulgence’ (The Guardian)

‘We are living in a Second Golden Age of violinists, but even in the context of Hilary Hahn, Leila Josefowitz and Julia Fischer, Alina Ibragimova is an astonishing talent … technically the playing is superb. Intonation is exceptional, and Ibragimova's timbral range—from the coarse to the silken, from the richly throbbing to the chastely disembodied—seems unlimited. The music is studded with challenges … she tosses it all off with self-confident authority … Cédric Tiberghien, with whom Ibragimova has played often, offers a real partnership rather than mere support … this is a major release’ (International Record Review)

‘Ibragimova's stunningly potent technique—the stuff of legend even in the close scrutiny of the digital age—is soon forgotten in a sensuous croon through which the more extravagantly impossible the violinistic hurdles, the more ecstatically glorious her tone becomes. Indeed, hurdles do not exist for her, and the usual descriptive and critical terms are useless, if only because they suggest comparison with other artists suddenly dwarfed by the incomparable. Such phrases as 'a tonal palette ranging from guttural coruscation to the most brilliantly glowing scintillance' simply will not do. There is a touch of the uncanny here, even a suggestion of the human voice—as of whispers, sighs, moans, wailing—in which the notes dissolve into a direct spiritual prehension. Ibragimova does not play or perform—she utterly possesses’ (Fanfare, USA)

‘The early violin sonata is especially fine, as are the little-known Paganini caprices’ (The Evening Standard)

‘The beautiful 24-year-old Russian violinist Alina Ibragimova teams with French pianist Cedric Tiberghien to prove that Szymanowski's violin music is the most impressive of his chamber music, especially the Scriabinesque Violin Sonata in D-minor Op 9. An exceptional disc’ (The Buffalo News, USA)
The Romance in D major Op 23 (1910), first performed in Warsaw in April 1913, already reveals a considerable advance towards the exotic, strangely inward exaltation of mature works. Both more rhapsodic in conception and more elliptical in its harmonic processes, it moves relatively early towards an opulent climax before retreating into the introspection of the opening, only to rise a second time. In a rapt conclusion the violin line soars ever higher into the stratosphere.

from notes by Francis Pott © 2009

La Romance en ré majeur op. 23 (1910), créée à Varsovie en avril 1913, témoigne déjà d’un considérable pas en avant vers l’exaltation exotique, étrangement intérieure, des œuvres de la maturité. À la fois plus rhapsodique dans sa conception et plus elliptique dans ses processus harmoniques, elle s’achemine relativement tôt vers un opulent apogée avant de se retirer dans l’introspection du début, pour mieux s’élever derechef. Dans une conclusion ravie, la ligne du violon grimpe toujours plus haut dans la stratosphère.

extrait des notes rédigées par Francis Pott © 2009
Français: Hypérion

Die Romanze in D-Dur op. 23 (1910), im April 1913 in Warschau uraufgeführt, lässt schon einen beträchtlichen Vorstoß zu den exotischen, seltsam nach innen gerichteten, exaltierten Spätwerken hin erkennen. Es ist eher rhapsodisch, und harmonisch gesehen elliptisch angelegt und bewegt sich schon recht früh auf einen üppigen Höhepunkt zu, bevor es wieder in die Selbstbeobachtung des Anfangs zurückfällt, um sich dann ein zweites Mal in die Höhe zu begeben. In dem verzückten Schlussteil steigt die Violine noch höher in die Stratosphäre empor.

aus dem Begleittext von Francis Pott © 2009
Deutsch: Viola Scheffel

Waiting for content to load...
Waiting for content to load...