A “Throwback” review for Haik Kazazyan’s Delos debut release, Opera Fantasies from AllMusic‘s Mike Brownell. Haik Kazazyan’s new release, Grieg: The Violin Sonatas is available worldwide TOMORROW, February 10th, 2017!
“Variations on opera themes and opera fantasies have been around about as long as operas themselves. One particularly popular use of such works is for virtuoso show pieces for string players, from the double bass right up to the violin. Several violin virtuosos have even taken upon themselves to write such fantasies for their own use. This Delos album by violinist Haik Kazazyan and pianist Andrey Shibko features six such works… Ranging from Gershwin to Rossini to Rimsky-Korsakov, the program gives listeners a wide variety of subject matter from a surprising array of violinists. Kazazyan possesses a strong technique to deliver the highly virtuosic demands of the program…Most significantly…the repertoire is entertaining and some of the works on the program are not frequently recorded.” —Mike D. Brownell, AllMusic
Opera Fantasies
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Pre-Order Grieg: The Violin Sonatas
In Haik Kazazyan’s first album for Delos, Opera Fantasies, the brilliant Armenian violin virtuoso demonstrated the fiery, passionate, and technically astonishing sides of his artistry. And the same musical virtues are certainly on display here, in his glowing rendition of the three violin sonatas by the Norwegian master Edvard Grieg.
In this new album – with dazzling and soulful collaboration from the rising young Russian piano wizard Philipp Kopachevsky – he also applies the sensitivity, subtlety, and interpretive insight needed to bring these three chamber masterpieces to vibrant life.
