Bel Canto: The Voice of the Viola Antoine Tamestit & Cédric Tiberghien

• Henri Vieuxtemps (1820-1881): Viola Sonata in B-Flat Major, Op. 36:
• 1I. Maestoso - Allegro11:37
• 2II. Barcarolla. Andante con moto06:30
• 3III. Finale scherzando. Allegretto04:05
• Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848):
• 4La Fille du Régiment, Act I, Scene 11: Air de Marie "Il faut partir" (Arr. for Piano & Viola)05:54
• Henri Vieuxtemps:
• 5Elegie in F Minor, Op. 3006:47
• Gaetano Donizetti:
• 6La Favorita, Act III, Scene 4: Air de Léonore "Ô mon Fernand" (Arr. for Piano & Viola)03:40
• Jacques-Féréol Mazas (1782-1849):
• 7Le Songe, Op. 92: Elégie sur un thème de La Favorite11:58
• Casimir Ney (1801-1877):
• 8Prelude No. 15 for Solo Viola04:58
• Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835):
• 9Norma, Act I, Scene 1: Air de Norma "Casta Diva" (Arr. for Piano & Viola)06:15
• Henri Vieuxtemps:
• 10Capriccio for Solo Viola, Op. 5503:25
• Total Runtime01:05:09

Info for Bel Canto: The Voice of the Viola

Hier ist die Diva, die Bratsche! Wie hat es die Bratsche geschafft, vom Status eines »dramatischen Alts unter den instrumentalen Stimmen« (nach den Worten des Kritikers Blanchard) zu einem »edlen, sehnsuchtsvollen Charakter«, wie er in einem Traktat zur Instrumentierung von Georg Kastner (1837) beschrieben wird, zu gelangen? Über das rein historische Interesse hinaus beantwortet das vorliegende Album diese Frage, indem es den ganzen Charme eines Repertoires vor uns auffächert, das die Pariser Konzertsäle und Salons über das 19. Jahrhundert hinweg nachhaltig beeindruckt hat – und der Zauber hält an! Das ist die Geschichte eines Instrumentes, das sich dank hervorragender Virtuosen endlich von der Violine emanzipiert hat. Und nun sind es zwei Virtuosen unserer Zeit, die mit weit mehr als erlesenem, sehnsuchtsvollen »Bel Canto« diese Stücke wieder aufleben lassen ... Die Diva ist die Bratsche; ihr zu Diensten steht Antoine Tamestit, der hier sein erstes Solo-Album für harmonia mundi einspielt.

Antoine Tamestit, Viola
Cedric Tiberghien, Klavier

Antoine Tamestit
has achieved the rare distinction as a violist, playing at the highest level as a soloist and in constant demand as a chamber musician and recitalist. He is recognised for his peerless technique and his profound, natural musicianship, and known too for the beauty of his sound with its rich, deep, burnished quality.

Tamestit’s repertoire ranges from the Baroque (he has arranged and recorded Bach’s Cello Suites for Viola) to the contemporary. He has performed and recorded several world premieres and in the 2015/16 season gave the world premiere of the viola concerto by Jörg Widmann with the Orchestre de Paris and Paavo Järvi. The work, which was composed especially for Tamestit, pushes the boundaries of the solo concerto genre and was met with great acclaim: “One of the most gifted French musicians of the era… The work is made to measure for Tamestit, his style of playing, his tone, his personality.” Le Figaro. Tamestit gave subsequent performances with the Swedish Radio Symphony and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Harding. In the 2016/17 season he will perform the concerto with the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Joshua Weilerstein.

Engagements in 2016-17 season include concerto performances with the London Symphony Orchestra and François-Xavier Roth at the Barbican and on tour, with the Philharmonia and Vladimir Ashkenazy, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Orchestre National de Bordeaux Aquitaine. Tamestit will also play/direct the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris.

Antoine Tamestit has also worked with the Vienna Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Czech Philharmonic, Rundfunk Sinfonie Orchestra Berlin, Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, , and with the several BBC symphony orchestras. He made his Russian debut at the Stars of the White Nights festival in 2014.

Tamestit plays in the string trio with Frank Peter Zimmermann and Christian Poltera with whom he has recorded Mozart Divertimento and Beethoven Trio Op.9 for Bis Records. This season the Trio Zimmermann will perform in Amsterdam, Zürich, Graz, Luxembourg, Warsaw, Dortmund, Dusseldorf and Milan. Other chamber engagements in the 2016/17 season include trio performances with Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Mark Simpson at the Edinburgh International Festival, Salzburg Festival, Cologne Philharmonie and Festival de Musique de Strasbourg, recitals at Konzerthaus Berlin and Wigmore Hall with Cédric Tiberghien, and in a solo recital at The Frick Collection in New York.

Other chamber music partners include a trio with Jörg Widmann and Francesco Piemontesi, Leonidas Kavakos, Gautier Capucon, Emmanuel Ax, Gidon Kremer, Christian Tetzlaff, Emmanuel Pahud, Martin Fröst, Nicholas Angelich, Shai Wosner and Ebene and Hagen Quartets.

Antoine Tamestit’s distinguished discography includes Berlioz’s Harold en Italie, which was recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra and Valery Gergiev and released in 2015 by LSO Live. For Naïve he has recorded three of the Bach Suites, Hindemith solo and concertante works recorded with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and Paavo Järvi, and an earlier recording of Harold in Italy with Marc Minkowski and Les Musicians du Louvre. In 2016 he appeared with Frank Peter Zimmermann and the Chamber Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra on a new recording of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante (Hännsler Classic).

Other notable recordings include solo works by Bach and Ligeti (Naïve/Ambroisie), Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante with Renaud Capuçon, Louis Langrée and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (Virgin Classics) and the Schnittke Concerto with Warsaw Philharmonic and Kitajenko (Naïve/Ambroisie).

Tamestit’s world premiere performances and recordings, in addition to Jörg Widmann’s Viola Concerto, include George Benjamin’s Viola, Viola with Tabea Zimmermann for Nimbus Records, the Concerto for Two Violas by Bruno Mantovani written for Tabea Zimmermann and Tamestit, and Olga Neuwirth’s Remnants of Songs.

Together with Nobuko Imai, Antoine Tamestit is co-artistic director of the Viola Space Festival in Tokyo, focusing on the development of viola repertoire and a wide range of education programmes.

Born in Paris, Antoine Tamestit studied with Jesse Levine at Yale University and with Tabea Zimmermann. He was the recipient of several coveted prizes including the William Primrose Competition and the first prize at the Young Concert Artists (YCA) International Auditions, BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists Scheme, Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award and the Credit Suisse Young Artist Award in 2009.

Antoine Tamestit plays on a viola made by Stradivarius in 1672, loaned by the Habisreutinger Foundation.

Cédric Tiberghien
Tiberghien’s career spans five continents taking him to some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls, including, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Centre in Washington, the Royal Albert Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall and Barbican in London, the Salle Pleyel and the Theatre des Champs Elysees in Paris, Berlin’s Bechstein Hall, Salzburg’s Mozarteum, the Sydney Opera and Tokyo’s Bunka Kaikan and Asahi Halls.

Highlights of the current season include return projects with the Cleveland Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Auckland Philharmonia, Tasmania Symphony,BBC Scottish Symphony and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras; and extensive residency with the Orchestre de Bretagne which will see Cédric direct the orchestra from the piano in concertos by Mozart as well as concerto performances by Saint-Saens and Mendelssohn and a chamber project with the orchestral wind principals.

Cédric TIberghien recently made his debut with the London Symphony Orchestra and his recital debut at the Vienna Konzerthaus and Kumho Art Hall in Seoul. This season he also looks forward to returning to London’s Wigmore Hall, Flagey in Brussels, the Beethoven Haus Bonn and Laeiszhalle in Hamburg.

During season 15-16, Cédric presented a major focus on the music of Bartok and his most recent recital disc released on Hyperion ( April 2016) is the first in a 3 volume exploration of Bartok’s solo piano works and has been met with critical enthusiasm;

"He never overplays, yet there's ample dynamic variety, scrupulous attention to articulation and plenty of rhythmic verve. Tiberghien combines intellectual objectivity with a strong sense of Bartók's deeply rooted kinaesethetic impulse and essential earthiness." (Gramophone, April 2016)

His discography also includes Szymanowksi Etudes and Masques, César Franck’s Symphonic Variations and Les Djinns, with the Liege Philharmonic conducted by François-Xavier Roth, Brahms’s Concerto No.1 with the BBC Symphony and Jiri Belohlavek, and six recital discs on Harmonia Mundi: Debussy, Beethoven Variations, Bach Partitas, Chopin and Brahms Ballades, Brahms Hungarian Dances, and a recital of Chopin Mazurkas.

Cédric Tiberghien studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Frédéric Aguessy and Gérard Frémy and was awarded the Premier Prix in 1992, aged just 17. He was then a prize winner at several major international piano competitions (Bremen, Dublin, Tel Aviv, Geneva, Milan), culminating with the 1st Prize at the prestigious Long-Thibaud Competition in Paris in 1998, alongside with five special awards, including the Audience Award and the Orchestra Award.

With over 60 concertos in his repertoire, Cédric Tiberghien has appeared with some of the world’s finest orchestras, including the Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Washington National Symphony, Seattle Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, Hamburger Philharmoniker, Dresden Philharmonic, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, Philharmonique de Radio-France, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Sydney Symphony, Tokyo Philarmonic and New Japan Philharmonic. His conductor collaborations include Christoph Eschenbach, Jiri Belohlavek, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Simone Young, Myung-Whun Chung, Kurt Masur, Ivan Fischer, Jeffrey Tate, Louis Langrée, Ludovic Morlot, Stephane Deneve and Enrique Mazzola.

Cédric Tiberghien is also a dedicated chamber musician, with regular partners including violinist Alina Ibragimova, violist Antoine Tamestit and cellist Pieter Wispelwey. His passion for chamber music is reflected in numerous recordings: his discography with Alina Ibragimova includes Schubert (Hyperion), Ravel and Lekeu (Hyperion), Szymanowski (Hyperion), and the complete Beethoven violin sonatas (Wigmore Live). He also recently recorded a disc of French settings of Verlaine with Sophie Karthauser (Cypres).

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