Kerson Leong – Ysaÿe: Six Sonatas for Solo Violin (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Kerson Leong – Ysaÿe: Six Sonatas for Solo Violin (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:10:18 minutes | 429 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics

Kerson Leong recently participated in the award-winning “Tribute to Ysaÿe” (FUG758). Here is his first solo recital for Alpha. The young Canadian violinist’s career began at the age of thirteen when he won the First Prize of the Junior division of the Menuhin Competition in Oslo in 2010. In 2018 he was named artist-in-residence with the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal. An associate musician at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, under the mentorship of Augustin Dumay, he has already performed at such venues as Carnegie Hall, the Verbier Festival and Wigmore Hall. The Quebec newspaper Le Devoir, which has followed him since the start of his career, speaks of ‘the purity of intonation, the brilliance of the high notes, the power of the sound… Kerson Leong has remained as brilliant as ever, but he has added a new patina and, deep down inside himself, a new class’. He plays a superb Guarneri del Gesù, on loan from a Canadian patron.

Here he tackles a monument of the violin repertory, the Sonatas for Solo Violin of Eugène Ysaÿe: ‘These sonatas are of course a big test . . . The music is highly emotional, pervasive and in some ways also very sombre, which makes it extremely powerful’, says Leong of these six Sonatas, which he frequently plays in their entirety in a single concert.

Tracklist:
01. Kerson Leong – Sonata for Solo Violin No.1 in G Minor, Op. 27 ‘A Joseph Szigeti’: I. Grave (Lento assai) (04:58)
02. Kerson Leong – Sonata for Solo Violin No.1 in G Minor, Op. 27 ‘A Joseph Szigeti’: II. Fugato (Molto moderato) (05:15)
03. Kerson Leong – Sonata for Solo Violin No.1 in G Minor, Op. 27 ‘A Joseph Szigeti’: III. Allegretto poco scherzoso (Amabile) (04:48)
04. Kerson Leong – Sonata for Solo Violin No.1 in G Minor, Op. 27 ‘A Joseph Szigeti’: IV. Finale con brio (Allegro fermo) (05:22)
05. Kerson Leong – Sonata for Solo Violin No.2 in A Minor, Op. 27 ‘A Jacques Thibaud’: I. Obsession (Prélude. Poco vivace) (02:43)
06. Kerson Leong – Sonata for Solo Violin No.2 in A Minor, Op. 27 ‘A Jacques Thibaud’: II. Malinconia (Poco lento) (02:42)
07. Kerson Leong – Sonata for Solo Violin No.2 in A Minor, Op. 27 ‘A Jacques Thibaud’: III. Danse des ombres (Sarabande. Lento) (03:02)
08. Kerson Leong – Sonata for Solo Violin No.2 in A Minor, Op. 27 ‘A Jacques Thibaud’: IV. Les furies (Allegro furioso) (04:35)
09. Kerson Leong – Sonata for Solo Violin No.3 in D Minor, Op. 27 ‘A Georges Enesco’: Ballade (Lento molto sostenuto, molto moderato quasi lento, (03:24)
10. Kerson Leong – Sonata for Solo Violin No.4 in E Minor, Op. 27 ‘A Fritz Kreisler’: I. Allemande (Lento maestoso) (07:26)
11. Kerson Leong – Sonata for Solo Violin No.4 in E Minor, Op. 27 ‘A Fritz Kreisler’: II. Sarabanda (Quasi lento) (05:59)
12. Kerson Leong – Sonata for Solo Violin No.4 in E Minor, Op. 27 ‘A Fritz Kreisler’: III. Finale (Presto ma non troppo) (03:41)
13. Kerson Leong – Sonata for Solo Violin No.5 in G Major, Op. 27 ‘A Mathieu Crikboom’: I. L’aurore (Lento assai – Mesure très libre) (03:11)
14. Kerson Leong – Sonata for Solo Violin No.5 in G Major, Op. 27 ‘A Mathieu Crikboom’: II. Danse rustique (Allegro giocoso molto moderato) (05:27)
15. Kerson Leong – Sonata for Solo Violin No.6 in E Major, Op. 27 ‘A Manuel Quiroga’: Allegro giusto non troppo vivo, allegretto poco scherzando (07:38)

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