James Ehnes:Andrew Armstrong - Bartok: Works For Violin Piano

James Ehnes has previously explored B�la Bart�k's concertos for violin and for viola, to great acclaim. This disc is the second in his equally successful survey of Bart�k's chamber music for the violin. His accompanist, once more, is Andrew Armstrong, a pianist praised by critics for his passionate expression and dazzling technique.The folk-inspired Sonata for Solo Violin was the last work that Bart�k wrote for the instrument, not to mention the most challenging. In a departure from his usual practice, this work was written not for a fellow Hungarian, but rather for an artist born in New York where Bart�k was now living: Yehudi Menuhin. Suitably impressed by a recital performance by Menuhin of his first Violin Sonata as well as Bach's Sonata in C, he had no hesitation in accepting the violinist's commission for a sonata that, like Bach's, would be unaccompanied.Almost half a century earlier, Bart�k had written his Sonata for Violin and Piano in E minor. It was included in a concert given by graduating students of the Liszt Academy in June 1903, when a critic, most likely not realising just how right he would prove, hailed Bart�k as 'a phenomenal young genius, whose name today is known only to a few, but who is destined to play a great and brilliant role in the history of Hungarian music'.Additionally on this disc we have three groups of Bart�k's Romanian and Hungarian folk dances, folksongs, and folk tunes, arranged for violin variously by Zolt�n Sz�kely, Tivadar Orsz�gh, and Joseph Szigeti, often with direct involvement by the composer himself who helped fine-tune the new arrangements. James Ehnes also highlights the Romanian influences in Bart�k's Sonatina for piano, transcribed for violin by Andr� Gertler, a student of Bart�k's.