Thomas Zehetmair - Heinz Holliger: Violinkonzert

Heinz Holliger�s Violin Concerto, subtitled �Hommage � Louis Soutter�, is a musical portrait of the innovative Swiss painter who began his artistic career as a violinist, studying with the great Eug�ne Ysa�e . Arguing that his painterly activity was an extension of his playing, Holliger �translates� Soutter�s agitated brushstrokes into pitches. Soutter�s troubled relationship to Ysa�e is one of the concerto�s conceptual themes, as is the militant pacifism that found expression in his canvasses. In all, a fascinating, highly-detailed work, played with fiery intensity by Thomas Zehetmair, whose account of Ysa�e�s third sonata � astonishing in its own right - becomes here a highly effective �foreword� to the Holliger composition, laying bare one of its inspirational sources.