STEFAN MILENKOVICH

STEFAN MILENKOVICH: BRAHMS & GLAZUNOV - VIOLINSKI KONCERT - EN SHAO - SIMFONIČNI ORKESTER RTV SLO

Classical and Modern Music

Format: CD

Code: 113796

EAN: 3838898113796

    Foreign platforms:

12,41 EUR

Music analysts refer to Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) as the “third B”, after Bach and Beethoven. Although music history frequently labels him as the last German Romantic of the 19th century, his style and his attitude to art need to be understood somewhat more broadly. Compared to Liszt and Wagner, the “New Germans”, Brahms was conservative, but he was in fact the heir to the classical symphonic legacy of Mozart, Haydn and especially Beethoven, while his artistic roots reach even deeper, to the strict Baroque world of Bach.

Brahms composed the Violin Concerto in D major in 1878, when he spent a pleasant summer beside the Wörthersee. The work arose from a deep and warm friendship with the violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim. The latter was a brilliant violinist and the decision to write a concerto for him is unlikely to have been difficult for Brahms, who took into account a great deal of Joachim’s friendly advice, particularly when it came to creating the solo part. In fact, Brahms entrusted Joachim with the creation of the solo cadenza. Thus one of the most beautiful works of the violin repertoire came about, demonstrating an incredible synthesis of Brahms the lyricist and Brahms the vigorous symphonist. Although, unlike other Romantic concertos, Brahms’s work is distinctively non-virtuoso, it is extraordinarily demanding technically, and it is no wonder that Hans von Bülow labelled it “a concerto against the violin”. The Violin Concerto was first performed in Leipzig on 1 January 1879, under the baton of the composer and with Joseph Joachim as soloist.

Alexander Glazunov (1865–1936) attracted the attention of the music world at the age of only sixteen years, when he wrote his first symphony. As well as demonstrating his knowledge of composition, the work also reflected the young composer’s familiarity with of the “Russian style” of the St Petersburg circle of composers that had formed around Rimsky-Korsakov. The latter was Glazunov’s teacher, and he once wrote that the musical knowledge of the talented young man developed at such a rapid rate that he regarded him more as a young colleague than as a student. As well as composing, Glazunov also devoted himself to conducting, and it was he who presented Russian music to the West even prior to the turn of the century. In 1905, he became the director of the St Petersburg Conservatory, where he also taught composition. He educated several generations of students, amongst whom were Dmitri Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev, whose great musical talent Glazunov immediately recognised and constantly encouraged. After the First World War, Glazunov was criticised by certain professors as well as some students for his conservatism. It was for this reason that the composer and conductor decided not to return home after performances in France in 1928. Having stated health reasons for remaining in France, he remained a valued and respected artist in the then Soviet Union despite his refusal to return.

The Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 82 is undoubtedly amongst Alexander Glazunov’s best and most popular works. Although composed in the first years of the 20th century, in style and spirit it remains a devout heir of the previous century, being based on the violin concertos of Wieniawski, Tchaikovsky, Lalo and Bruch. The composer wrote the Violin Concerto for his friend Leopold Auer, who first presented it to the Russian public in 1905 in St Petersburg, under the baton of the composer. The brilliant work was written in one compositional stroke, without pauses between the movements. This was a formal innovation for the concerto, and gave rise to a new concertante form that was rhapsodic or similar to a tone poem.  Leopold Auer was a pupil of the great Joseph Joachim, and himself taught Elman, Heifetz and Milstein. The superb artist brought Alexander Glazunov’s Violin Concerto to all of the major concert halls of the Western world, where it still retains its place today.

Monika Kartin
Translated by: Neville Hall

 

Awarded as Serbia’s “Artist of Century” (2002), “Most Humane Person” (2003) and “Brand Personality of the Year” (2010), Stefan Milenkovich is a unique artist with an extraordinarily productive longevity and creativity. He started  his career at a very young age. At the age 16 he gave his 1000th concert and  by age 17, he was a winner of The Young Concert Artists International Competition (USA), as well as a prizewinner in the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis (USA), the Queen Elisabeth Competition (Belgium), Hannover Violin Competition (Germany), Tibor Varga Competition (Switzerland), Rodolfo Lipizer Competition (Italy), Paganini Competition (Italy), Ludwig Spohr Competition (Germany), and the Yehudi Menuhin Competition (England). His numerous appearances with orchestra include the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Aspen Chamber Symphony, the Helsinki Philharmonic, the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of Radio France, the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Mexico State Symphony, Orquestra Sinfonica de Estado de Sao Paolo, and the Melbourne and Queensland Symphonies, with conductors such as Sir Neville Marriner, Lorin Maazel, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Daniel Oren and En Shao. Milenkovich has performed with the five-time Grammy Nominee rock band Gorillaz at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, featured live on MTV, the Grammy Award Nominee lutenist Edin Karamazov, as well as the Balkan ethno guitar legend Vlatko Stefanovski. He has taught at the Juilliard School in collaboration with violinist Itzhak Perlman and is currently on the violin faculty of the University of Illinois. For more information please visit www.milenkovich.com.

Since its foundation in 1955, the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra has established itself as an important component of Slovenian culture with archive recordings, concerts and guest appearances at renowned festivals throughout the world. It has been led by conductors Uroš Prevoršek, Samo Hubad, Stanislav Macura, Anton Nanut, Lior Shambadal (2000–2003) and David de Villiers (2003–2006), and in September 2006 the position of chief conductor was taken over by the superb Chinese maestro En Shao, who has thrilled audiences with his penetrating and mature interpretations. The orchestra performs and records an extensive and diverse repertoire embracing almost the entire Slovenian symphonic output and a major part of the international symphonic repertoire, as testified to by the orchestra’s international discography, which has been accompanied with excellent international reviews. In recent seasons, the orchestra has performed numerous resounding concerts at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Vienna’s Musikverein and Konzerthaus, the Cologne Philharmonic Hall and elsewhere in Europe. The RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra is a member of the international network of orchestras ONE – Orchestra Network Europe.

 

TRACKS:
Johannes Brahms: Violin Concerto in D major, op.77

1. Allegro non troppo 25:05
2. Adagio 9:42
3. Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace - Poco più presto 8:41 (listen!)

Alexander Glazunov: Violin Concerto in A minor, op.82
4. Moderato – Andante sostenuto – Più animato - Allegro 22:14

 

Stefan Milenkovich – violin
En Shao – conductor
RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra

Content

No. Title Duration Listen sample MP3
1 J.Brahms_ Violin Concerto, D major, op.77, Allegro non troppo 25:05
0,69 EUR
2 J.Brahms_ Violin Concerto, D major, op.77, Adagio 9:41
0,69 EUR
3 J.Brahms_ Violin Concerto, D major, op.77, Allegro giocoso 8:42
0,69 EUR
4 A.Glazunov_ Violin Concerto, A minor, op.82 22:13
0,69 EUR

STEFAN MILENKOVICH