Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2 | Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances, Op 45 | Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Tugan Sokhiev cond.Geneviève Laurenceau (violin) | Naive V5256 | $NZ33
Following two highly praised recordings of Russian orchestral music (V5068 and V5073), this is the third recording by the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and Tugan Sokhiev for Naïve. The CD includes two more great Russian masterpieces, Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances and Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto. The latter features the orchestra’s new leader, the talented soloist Geneviève Laurenceau.
Tugan Sokhiev became music director of the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse in 2008, following three years as principal guest conductor and artistic adviser. During this collaboration he has conducted many critically acclaimed concerts across Europe and Asia, and their first two discs for Naïve received remarkable reviews. Tugan Sokhiev has just been named music director designate of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and will take up his role as music director from the 2012-13 season.
Born in Strasbourg in 1977, Geneviève Laurenceau was awarded the Grand Prix of the Académie Maurice Ravel at Saint-Jean-de-Luz in September 2001, and later won the fifth ‘Violon de l’Adami’ award, She has performed as a soloist with the leading French and international orchestras under the direction of such conductors as Michel Plasson, Kees Bakels, Walter Weller and Tugan Sokhiev.
Both Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff left Russia following the Revolution of 1917, and both made careers abroad as composer-pianists. However, while Rachmaninoff resolved never to return to Russia so long as it was under Soviet rule, Prokofiev took a more pragmatic approach and, though cautious in his dealings with Soviet authorities, remained on good terms with the Soviet authorities.
“Laurenceau is a seductive envoy of Prokofiev’s opening gambit, drawing the listener in with a poetic and rich-sounding introduction; furthermore she is as technically athletic and tonally acerbic as is required later on…She not only plays marvellously and fantastically but has a distinct and compelling view of the concerto, relishing its contrasts of mood and also its beauty” International Record Review, March 2011
“[Laurenceau] has the measure of the amalgam that goes to make up Prokofiev’s mid-1930s style…Crucial to the overall effectiveness of the performance is Tugan Sokhiev’s sharp-eared conducting of the Toulouse Capitole Orchestra, in which colour is deftly and discerningly applied, impetus strong and the shifts in the music’s temperament seamlessly executed.” Gramophone Magazine, April 2011
“Laurenceau is commanding, ardent, colourful and intonation perfect. She makes some of the passages…sound like they’ve never done before; and the final begins with splendid swagger…The Toulouse Capitole Orchestra has its virtues, not least those bright, caressing woodwind who launch the central reverie of Rachmaninov’s first symphonic dance.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2011 ***
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