Violinist Guila Bustabo and Conductor Oswald Kabasta, who premiered the Violin Concerto, are pictured the duvet of this new launch from Farao Classics.
In the event you point out the composer Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari to lovers of classical music, they may most likely say “Oh sure, he wrote comedian operas like Il Segreto di Susanna and I Quattro Rustegi.” That’s true, however there may be much more of this composer’s outstanding music to be found, as you’ll be taught while you take heed to a terrific new recording of Wolf-Ferrari’s Violin Concerto from Farao Classics. In case you are a member of Classical Archives, you possibly can pay attention now.
The recording contains a terrific efficiency by violinist Benjamin Schmid and the Oviedo Filarmonia, carried out by Friedrich Haider. This album may also function your introduction to the adventurous Vienna-born violinist Benjamin Schmid, who has made it his mission to carry out lesser-known concertos by Gulda, Muthspiel, Szymanowski, Lutoslawski, Reger and others. His new recording of the Wolf-Ferrari Concerto makes a powerful case for why this concerto deserves to be heard extra usually.
This new Farao launch additionally provides a chance to listen to the younger Austrian conductor Friedrich Haider conduct the Oviedo Filarmonia, a Spanish orchestra he has been affiliated with since 2004.
About Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari was born in Venice in 1876 to a German father and an Italian mom. As a younger man, he studied composition with Josef Rheinberger in Munich after which started to compose. Along with a number of comedian operas, he wrote at the least one main, verismo-influenced opera, i gioielli della Madonna, which was carried out on the Metropolitan Opera in 1926. Later in his life he taught composition on the Mozarteum in Salzburg. He died in Venice in 1948.
At first consideration, Wolf-Ferrari’s life appears just like that of Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924). Each males wrote music that walked on the inventive borders of Italy and Austria/Germany. But musically talking, Busoni was the extra Germanic of the 2 and Wolf-Ferrari, the extra Italian. Busoni’s music usually appears post-Wagnerian, whereas Wolf-Ferrari’s appears to pulsate with a Mediterranean heat.
In regards to the Violin Concerto in D, Op. 26

Benjamin Schmid
The four-movement concerto was first carried out on January 7th, 1944, by the American violinist Guila Bustabo with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra carried out by Oswald Kabasta.
The opening notes of the primary motion are arid and by some means paying homage to Sibelius’s nice Violin Concerto. However quickly Wolf-Ferrari’s heat voice emerges.
Because the liner notes that accompany this glorious recording inform us . . .
Why this impressed violin concerto has since led a marginalised existence, all however utterly uncared for in on a regular basis live performance life, is meaningless.
Due to Friedrich Haider, the German-Italian Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari has skilled one thing of a renaissance over the previous few years. Ever for the reason that conductor got here throughout a rating by this composer in a London second-hand bookshop, he has been fascinated by this music and turn out to be an ardent champion of the virtually forgotten grasp.
“Wolf-Ferrari’s violin concerto comprises merely all the pieces a violinist might need,” says Benjamin Schmid. When he was given the rating by Friedrich Haider, he was instantly captivated by the work. “With Wolf-Ferrari, you have got the sensation that he’s singing each second of the time. One good melodic thought follows the opposite in all 4 actions of the violin concerto. It has enchantingly stunning inspirations and an countless wealth of nuance, and is refined in type and magnificently orchestrated as effectively.”
Pay attention Now
In case you are a member of Classical Archives, you possibly can pay attention and uncover this glorious concerto now.