Sonatas for Two Violins Maria Milstein & Mathieu van Bellen

• Sergei Prokofiev (1891 - 1953): Sonata for Two Violins in C Major, Op. 56:
• 1Sonata for Two Violins in C Major, Op. 56: I. Andante cantabile02:49
• 2Sonata for Two Violins in C Major, Op. 56: II. Allegro02:59
• 3Sonata for Two Violins in C Major, Op. 56: III. Commodo (quasi allegretto)03:59
• 4Sonata for Two Violins in C Major, Op. 56: IV. Allegro con brio05:28
• Henryk Górecki (1933 - 2010): Sonata for Two Violins, Op. 10:
• 5Sonata for Two Violins, Op. 10: I. Allegro molto08:14
• 6Sonata for Two Violins, Op. 10: II. Adagio sostenuto03:53
• 7Sonata for Two Violins, Op. 10: III. Andante con moto04:07
• Eugène Ysaÿe (1858 - 1931): Sonata for Two Violins in A Minor:
• 8Sonata for Two Violins in A Minor: I. Poco Lento, maestoso - Allegro fermo11:46
• 9Sonata for Two Violins in A Minor: II. Allegretto poco lento08:13
• 10Sonata for Two Violins in A Minor: III. Finale. Allegro vivo e con fuoco12:28
• Total Runtime01:03:56

Info zu Sonatas for Two Violins

The setting of this album - two violins without accompaniment - is no ordinary combination, and the repertoire, though encompassing several style periods from the Baroque to the 21st century, is much smaller than that of a more standard duo such as violin and piano.

When choosing a program for this album, we were adamant to present works which, rather than using virtuosic violin display as a means to an end, are masterworks in their own right, where the virtuosity of writing is a simple tool used to create breathtaking landscapes and thrilling stories. Three different countries and three different universes, though all three composed within less than half a century - the Sonatas for Two Violins by Serguei Prokofiev, Henryk Górecki and Eugène Ysaÿe show with their incredible variety how exciting a violin duo can be.

Maria Milstein, violin
Mathieu van Bellen, violin

Maria Milstein
Born in Moscow into a family of musicians, Maria Milstein studied in Amsterdam with Ilya Grubert, in London with David Takeno and at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Waterloo (Belgium) with Augustin Dumay.

Maria is a prizewinner of major international competitions both as a soloist and as a chamber musician, such as "Città di Brescia" and "Premio Rodolfo Lipizer" in Italy, the ARD Competition in Munich, the Lyon Chamber Music Competition and the Kersjes Prize in the Netherlands. In 2016, Maria is awarded the Fellowship of the Borletti Buitoni Trust, and in 2018, she receives the Dutch Music Prize - the highest recognition for a classical musician in the Netherlands awarded by the Ministry of Culture.

Maria performs extensively across Europe in halls such as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, BOZAR in Brussels, Musikverein in Vienna, the Philharmonie of Cologne and Cité de la Musique in Paris. She has appeared as a soloist with a.o. The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Hague Philharmonic, the Brussels Philharmonic and Amsterdam Sinfonietta, and worked with conductors such as Vasily Petrenko, Giancarlo Guerrero, Michel Tabachnik, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Christian Arming and Reinbert de Leeuw.

A keen chamber musician, Maria formed the succesful Van Baerle Trio together with pianist Hannes Minnaar and cellist Gideon den Herder, one of the leading trios of its generation. After winning the ARD Competition and the Lyon Chamber Music Competition, the Trio made the ECHO Rising Stars Tour in 2014, peforming in famous concert halls all over Europe. The Trio already released two CD's, both praised in the international press, and is presently recording the complete works for piano trio by Beethoven for Challenge Records.

Maria's own debut CD « Sounds of War », recorded with pianist Hanna Shybayeva for Cobra Records and featuring Sonatas by Poulenc, Janáček and Prokofiev, received lavish reviews in the international press and won the Edison Klassiek Prize 2015 in the category “best chamber music album”. In October 2017 her second album “La Sonate de Vinteuil”, recorded with pianist Nathalia Milstein is released on the French label Mirare, and is voted "best CD of 2017" by the Dutch press. ​

Maria plays on a violin by Michel Angelo Bergonzi (Cremona, ca. 1750), on loan from the Dutch Music Instruments Foundation, and holds a teaching position at the Conservatory of Amsterdam.

Mathieu van Bellen
was born in the Netherlands and started studying the violin in Belgium with Nico Baltussen. He continued with Jan Repko, first at the Amsterdam Conservatoire and then at Chethams School of Music in Manchester, for which he was awarded a scholarship by The VandenEnde Foundation. He continued at the Royal College of Music in London with Itzhak Rashkovsky and at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin, with Ulf Wallin.

Laureate of the Yehudi Menuhin Competition, Wieniawski Competition, Prinses Christina Competition and Oskar Back Competition he is a recipient of MBF, RPS Emily Anderson Prize, Philharmonia Martin Musical Scholarship Fund Awards and Making Music Awards. He was also awarded the Bach Prize and the String Player of the Year 2008 at the Royal College of Music. He has given concerts in Europe, Asia and the USA, playing in major music festivals such as the Festspiele MV in Germany, and chamber music festivals all over Europe. He has appeared several times on television and radio, and has performed in halls like the Purcell Room and Royal Festival Hall at the Southbank Centre, London, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Tel Aviv Opera House, and Megaron in Athens, performing with orchestras such as the National Orchestra of Belgium, Gelders Orkest, Holland Symfonia, Southbank Sinfonia, and Camerata Athena.

Violinist of the Busch Trio, Mathieu is an active chamber musician, having played chamber music concerts with artists including Shlomo Mintz, Miguel da Silva, Michael Collins and Bruno Giuranna. With the Busch Trio he has performed in Europe and Asia, playing in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall London, BOZAR Brussels and NCPA Beijing. They are currently recording the entire Dvorak chamber works with piano on Alpha Classics, and in 2016 they won the prestigious Dutch Kersjes Prijs.

In 2013 he founded the Scaldis Kamermuziek Festival, a yearly chamber music festival in the area of Zeeland in the Netherlands.

His first CD was released in November 2014, with solo works by Bach, Blaha and Bartók. In the same year he was concert master of the European Union Youth Orchestra, working with Vasily Petrenko and Vladimir Ashkenazy including concerts at the BBC Proms, London and Concertgebouw Amsterdam.

In 2015 Mathieu won the Grachtenfestival Prize, resulting in a residency during the 2016 Grachtenfestival. In 2017 he was soloist of the Netherlands Student Orchestra and he was asked to succeed Christiaan Bor as artistic director of the Reizend MuziekGezelschap, also known as the Amsterdam Chamber Music Society.

Mathieu plays on the ex-Adolf Busch G.B. Guadagnini violin (Turin, 1783), using a Dominique Peccatte bow, both on loan to him thanks to private sponsorship, for which he is most grateful.

Dieses Album enthält kein Booklet