VVCD-00065
DDD

Jean Sibelius
Symphony No 2
Violin Concerto
Valse Triste

Tchaikovsky Symphony orchestra
Vladimir Fedoseyev

Andrei Korsakov, violin

Jean Sibelius, a Finnish composer and one of the most outstanding composers in Europe, brought the national musical culture to the world stage. His best compositions were written in the concerto and symphony genres, like Violin Concerto, a number of orchestral works .
Symphony No2 presents in perfect harmony most important features of his artistic world: pastoral and landscape lyrics, some typical devices of scherzo and drama. The orchestration appeals by its natural way. It never becomes the end in itself but always continues the very idea of music.
Sibelius’ long and happy life began with the dream of the career of a solo violinist. It was as a student of violin that he entered the Helsinki Musical Institute in 1885. Violin remained his love for the rest of his life. Concerto for violin and orchestra became the main work of the Finnish composer for the instrument. According to Erik Tawastjerna, the author of a fundamental book on Sibelius, "the composer was writing it for himself, or, to be more correct, for a virtuoso he once had a dream to become". An entry in Sibelius diary of 1915 says: "I dreamt that I had been twelve and a virtuoso".
The composer achieved an ideal balance of the artistic and technical sides in the concerto.
Valse Triste was written as a fragment from the music to the Arno Jarnefelt’s drama "Death". It comes at a key episode of the play. The principal character seems to see a ball where his mother among other guests is dancing. The dance is fading away than recommences until death comes to knock at the door. The play did not outlive its time and Valse Triste is for a long time perceived out of its context. The symphonic miniature sounds like a drama of life and death with the emphasis on deep sorrow and melancholy .not on the horror of death.
Mikhail Segelman

Vladimir Fedoseev was borh in Leningrad and studied in Moscow at the Gnesins Academy of Music and then did postgraduate studies at Moscow Conservatoire with Professor Leo Ginzburg. In 1971 he was invited by Evgeny Mravinsky to guest conduct the Leningrad Philarmonic Orchestra. Since 1974 Vladimir Fedoseev has been working as the Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Tchaikovsky Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra .He also collaborates with leading orchestras in Europe including Zurich’s Tonhalle, Leipcig’s Gevandhaus, Orchestre de Paris, Bavarian Radio Orchestra. In 1996 he was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1997 Vladimir Fedoseev was appointed Chief Conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. As a highly acclaimed operatic conductor Fedoseev is a regular guest conductor at the Zurich Opera as well as Opera Theatres in Milano, Paris, Vienna, Bologna, Florence…
In 1996 he was awarded the prestigious Russian Order for Services to the Motherland and the same year he received from the Austrian Republic the Silver Cross for his services to music in Austria. He was also awarded the Golden Star of the honourable citizen of Vienna and its territory in October 2002.

An outstanding Soviet virtuoso violinist Andrei Korsakov ( 1946 - 1991) graduated from the Moscow Conservatoire where he studied under the tutorship of Prof. Belenky and Leonid Kogan. Prizewinner of the international Paganini competition in Genova, the competition in Montreal, M. Longue and J. Tibot Competition in Paris, the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels, and Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. People’s Artist of the Russian Federation.
Korsakov’a technique could be compared with that of Heifitz. He can do anything but it’s even more amazing that everything he does goes with surprising equanimity and never with any pose. Telegraph. Holland
Korsakov made quite a few recordings with Russian and European orchestras.

Total time: 77.11