The violin heard on these recordings is a Peter Guarneri II of Venice, circa 1750, which Eudice Shapiro acquired by trading her 1688 'Derenberg' Stradivarius.
Composition History
Darius Milhaud's Saudades do Brasil, Op. 67, is a suite of dances written after his 1917-1918 visit to Brazil, with each piece named after a Rio de Janeiro neighborhood.
Composer Biography
Johannes Brahms, a published composer for over 25 years, was self-conscious about his violin sonatas not matching those of Mozart and Beethoven.
Composition History
Ernest Bloch's 'Baal Shem' Suite, subtitled 'Three Pictures of Chassidic Life', was composed in 1923 and dedicated to his late mother.
Composition History
Brahms had written numerous violin sonatas by age 20, including one in A minor admired by Robert Schumann, but he later destroyed them.
Compositional Technique
Béla Bartók's Rhapsody No. 2, featured on this album, is cast in the form of a slow movement followed by a fast one, mirroring the two-part structure of the Hungarian verbunkos dances.
Recording & Production
The Stravinsky recordings on this album were made in Hollywood in October 1962 under the composer's supervision and originally released by Äva Records, a label co-founded by Fred Astaire.
