New recording of Busoni’s Violin Sonatas and Four Bagatelles
Following her recent recording of Busoni’s Violin Concerto - winner of the prestigious Italian critics award Premio Abbiati 2024 - Francesca Dego completes her celebration of Busoni’s anniversary year with this programme of the two sonatas for violin and piano, and the four Bagatelles.
Following her recent recording of Busoni’s Violin Concerto - winner of the prestigious Italian critics award Premio Abbiati 2024 - Francesca Dego completes her celebration of Busoni’s anniversary year with this programme of the two sonatas for violin and piano, and the four Bagatelles. The recording also marks 20 years of performances with duo partner Francesca Leonardi.
Album link: https://lnk.to/CHAN20304
Premio Abbiati del disco 2024
Francesca Dego’s Brahms/Busoni recording on Chandos honoured with the Premio Abbiati 2024, Italy’s most prestigious music award, presented by the Italian Music Critics Association.
Francesca Dego’s Brahms/Busoni recording on Chandos honoured with the Premio Abbiati 2024, Italy’s most prestigious music award, presented by the Italian Music Critics Association. The motivation for the prize:
“Francesca Dego pays homage to Ferruccio Busoni on the centenary of his death with an album in which she places his Concerto, a rare listening experience even on record, alongside its famous counterpart by Johannes Brahms. Two pages intertwined by musical references that Dego interprets with brilliant expressiveness through the strong, clear sound of her instrument, well supported by the orchestral blend produced by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted with eloquent flow by Dalia Stasevska.”
Australian concerto debut
Francesca Dego made her debut with both the Queensland and West Australian Symphony Orchestras.
Francesca Dego made her debut with both the Queensland and West Australian Symphony Orchestras. Francesca joined these ensembles on stage for the violin concertos of Sibelius in Queensland and Shostakovich (No. 1 in A minor) in Perth, both alongside conductor Asher Fisch. These keenly anticipated Australian concerto debuts close Dego’s season as she looks forward to other notable debuts in 2024/2025 including with the London Symphony Orchestra and Dallas Symphony Orchestra in November 2024.
Limelight reviewed Dego’s Sibelius in Brisbane: “ Dego’s skills are truly astonishing, and her flights up and down the many daredevil runs in the piece were incredible. Her entrance, too, had a lovely evocative shape to its long-breathed phrases.”
Album link: https://lnk.to/CHAN20280
New Horn trio recording
Francesca Dego joins renowned horn player Martin Owen and pianist Alessandro Taverna in this varied and compelling programme after performing it extensively over the last 7 years.
Francesca Dego joins renowned horn player Martin Owen and pianist Alessandro Taverna in this varied and compelling programme after performing it extensively over the last 7 years. Brahms’s Horn Trio was the first major work for this instrumentation, and remains one of the finest in the repertoire. The horn is often seen as symbolic of the forest – an important entity in German culture – and Brahms commented that his inspiration for the piece came to him whilst out walking though woodland. Ligeti’s Hommage à Brahms was very much inspired by Brahms’s Trio, although influences of Bartók and Hungarian folk music also play their part.
Gramophone magazine praised the album underlining “Brahms/Ligeti pairing is hardly new on record but, even without the substantial added attractions of Mozart and Schumann, this version sweeps the board.”
New Album
Violinist Francesca Dego records Brahms and Busoni concertos
The celebrated violinist Francesca Dego is joined by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and her regular collaborator Dalia Stasevska for this recording of the violin concertos by Brahms and Busoni.
The celebrated violinist Francesca Dego is joined by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and her regular collaborator Dalia Stasevska for this recording of the violin concertos by Brahms and Busoni. A cornerstone of the repertoire, Brahms’s Concerto dates from 1878, a year after the Second Symphony, and was composed for (and dedicated to) the virtuoso Joseph Joachim.
The Concerto takes the standard three-movement form, and as in Beethoven’s Concerto (considered by many as Brahms’s inspiration for the work) the first movement is significant in its length and its complexity. Busoni’s Violin Concerto in its turn is inspired by both Brahms and Beethoven, and like both previous works it is in the key of D major. Premièred in Berlin in 1897 by the Dutch violinist Henri Petri, the Concerto is dazzlingly virtuosic.
Francesca Dego writes: ‘To be able to record Brahms’s Violin Concerto is a dream and a milestone for every violinist and I feel that with “my” Brahms I do not want to compete with the many gorgeous versions out there but instead to declare my own love and history with my favourite violin concerto. Busoni’s Concerto, however, is a rarely performed work, brought to the studio only a handful of times. It represents a different kind of responsibility, one that pushed me to want to rediscover every detail of this music as if it had never been played before.’
New Album out now!
Listen to the new album now on your favourite platforms:
Four young stars record Mozart’s piano quartets
Following a highly successful series of concerts in the summer of 2022, Francesca Dego, Timothy Ridout, Laura van der Heijden, and Federico Colli headed into the studio to record Mozart’s Piano Quartets.
Following a highly successful series of concerts in the summer of 2022, Francesca Dego, Timothy Ridout, Laura van der Heijden, and Federico Colli headed into the studio to record Mozart’s Piano Quartets. Whilst he may not have been the first composer to add a viola to the popular piano trio, Mozart was certainly the first to do so with such outstanding success.
In his piano quartets, the strings become an equal partner to the piano, rather than mere accompaniment – much as in his piano concertos. This link is reinforced by his choice of form – unlike his string quartets, the piano quartets have three movements rather than four: a full-bodied movement in sonata form, a lighter central slow movement in a related key, and a rondo finale.
The first quartet is written in the key of G minor – rarely used by Mozart – and the overall mood is quite dark, almost disturbing. The second quartet, in E flat major, is by contrast much sunnier in atmosphere. Consequently, the two works together make for a very satisfying programme.
New Album out now!
Listen to the new album now on your favourite platforms:
Dego debuts with LSO on Apple Music
LSO and Apple Music have released “A New Dawn” a powerful collection of familiar and lesser-known works, featuring the star violinist Francesca Dego.
LSO and Apple Music have released “A New Dawn” a powerful collection of familiar and lesser-known works, featuring the star violinist Francesca Dego in Bologne’s Concerto Op.5 no.2 in A major, which was featured as Gramophone’s video of the day. For Francesca, Bologne’s music is a fairly recent discovery.
“When first introduced to his music a few years ago I was shocked by the fact I had never even read about him before, considering he is clearly one of the great violin virtuosos of all time” she comments. “Having now performed the A major Concerto various times I am beyond excited and grateful to be able to bring it to listeners together with one of the world’s greatest orchestras, the London Symphony. It truly deserves it!"
