Bartók / Poulenc / Ravel - Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Polina Leschenko - Deux flac album

For her third album on Alpha, Patricia Kopatchinskaja is joined by a highly talented pianist whose approach to music is as extremist as hers, Polina Leschenko. Together they explore pieces that have many points in common. The Hungarian violinist Jelly d’Arányi, grandniece of Joseph Joachim, was a "muse" to both Bartók and Ravel

Info for Deux (Bartók, Poulenc & Ravel). For her third album on Alpha, Patricia Kopatchinskaja is joined by a highly talented pianist whose approach to music is as extremist as hers, Polina Leschenko. The Hungarian violinist Jelly d Arányi, grandniece of Joseph Joachim, was a muse to both Bartók and Ravel

Deux (Bartók, Poulenc & Ravel) Patricia Kopatchinskaja. With buckets of personality and a trailblazing approach to everything she does, Patricia Kopatchinskaja once again opens our ears to her chosen music’s originality. Written for Jelly d’Arányi and Ginette Neveu, these works give their two great players plenty of scope to embrace a huge emotional and technical range. PatKop plays the Bartók Second Sonata magnificently, the atmosphere crackles with barely concealed danger, and she gives us a Poulenc sonata of seductive charm. Polina Leschenko is a fearless partner and soloist in Dohnányi’s delightful Coppélia waltz.

For her third album on Alpha, Patricia Kopatchinskaja is joined by a highly talented pianist whose approach to music is as extremist as hers, Polina Leschenko. In 1922 and 1923, she premiered the two Bartok sonatas for violin and piano and Ravel dedicated Tzigane to her. He wrote to Bartok: You have convinced me to compose for our friend, who plays so fluently, a little piece whose diabolical difficulty will bring to life the Hungary of my dreams; and since it will be for violin, why dont we call it Tzigane?

Granted, this is a Poulenc work with an unusual amount of technical flair, especially for his late period, and it's one in which he consciously avoided French melodicism. Nevertheless, in Kopatchinskaja and Leschenko's reading it sizzles and scratches. Sample the opening Allegro con fuoco for a representative slice of the whole program, which is unusually tightly focused. All the music is rooted in folk or vernacular sources without being nationalistic: it all uses those sources as basic vocabulary rather than as ethnic emblem

Patricia Kopatchinskaja, viool, Polina Leschenko, piano Kleine Zaal, Concertgebouw Amsterdam 28/4: Poulenc, Bartók, Enescu, Ravel. Door Katja Reichenfeld. een die op 28 april in de Kleine Zaal van het Amsterdamse Concertgebouw het concert van Patricia Kopatchinskaja en Polina Leschenko meemaakte, was een geluksvogel. In deze zaal waar zo vaak op topniveau werd en wordt gemusiceerd, vond nu iets plaats van een heel andere orde. Het leek of de zaal, die keurige fluwelen bonbonnière, ineens een plein in een zuidelijke stad was geworden, waar geen regels en vaste gebruiken heersten. A sense of theatre underpinned this richly adventurous recital by pianist Polina Leschenko, clarinettist Reto Bieri and violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja.

Recorded with acclaimed Russian pianist Polina Leschenko, whose approach to music has been described as being equally as extreme, the disc features Poulenc’s Violin Sonata, Dohnanyi’s ‘Waltz from Coppelia’, Bartok’s 2nd Violin Sonata and Ravel’s ‘Tzigane’  . Bartok, Poulenc, Ravel. Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Violin. Polina Leschenko, Piano. Release Date: February 23, 2018.