GIAN CARLO MENOTTI (1911-2007): Violin Concerto in A Minor (2005 ASV release), THEODORE WIPRUD (b.1958): Violin Concerto "Katrina", SAMUEL BARBER (1910-1981): Violin Concerto, Op. 14 (2003 ASV release).
Catalogue Number: 10O010
Label: Champs Hill
Reference: CHRCD043
Format: CD
Price: $16.98
Description: Brand-new is Wiprud's 2010-11 Hurricane Katrina-inspired concerto memorializing the musicians and musical life of New Orleans. Its first movement, Le bon temps, is infused with elements of jazz, blues and Cajun music (with harmonicas in the orchestra to suggest the Cajun accordion); the soloist is progressively drowned out by increasing waves of orchestral sound. The second, Acadiana, is based on an elegiac Cajun tune and the finale, Fly Away, a free fantasy on the jazz funeral standard "I'll Fly Away". It all works well and gives us a new, very attractive, full-length American violin concerto which deserves to be performed. Ittai Shapira (violin), Russian Philharmonic Orchestra; Thomas Sanderling, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra; Neil Thomson (Wiprud).