19th Century Violinist Composers

With flushed face, raised shoulders, and groans of delight Brahms belabored the keyboard while accompanying me and was happy that ‘such a thing existed in this world. Brahms was talking about one of the seminal violin works of the 19th century, and it wasn’t Beethoven’s magisterial Violin Concerto, nor was it Mendelssohn’s marvellous light and airy essay in the same genre. Nor was it the great Kreutzer Sonata or the concertos of Saint-Saëns. Brahms groaned with delight over the great 22nd violin concerto of Giovanni Battista Viotti, one of the true masters of the violin and the master who opened the door to a flood of great music little remembered today. Rode, Baillot, Kreutzer, Dancla, Alard, Spohr, Beriot, David, Mazas, Godard, Vieuxtemps and many more composers solidified the technique of modern violin-playing at the same time creating a body of music that is truly a buried treasure—now brought to the light of day and made part of our recorded legacy by Naxos. While the concerto form led the way, these composers wrote in a variety of forms: paraphrases of opera tunes, tone-poem descriptions of exotic travel , airs varie based on popular tunes, chamber music, and especially (many were pedagogues) etudes, caprices, and numerous “violin schools.” This series on 19th century violin music provides a window onto this vast repertoire, mostly written by practitioners of the instrument, and all of it delightful listening.


Album Title Catalogue No.
BAZZINI, A.: Virtuoso Works for Violin and Piano (Hanslip) 8.570800
BERIOT, C.A. de: Duo concertants / 6 Duos caractéristiques (Sohn, Marcus) 8.570748
BÉRIOT, C.A. de: Violin Concertos Nos. 1, 8 and 9 (Takako Nishizaki, RTBF Symphony, A. Walter) 8.555104
BERIOT, C.-A. de: Violin Concertos Nos. 2, 3 and 5 (Quint) 8.570360
BÉRIOT, C.-A. de: Violin Concertos Nos. 4, 6, 7 (Ayana Tsuji, Czech Chamber Philharmonic, Pardubice, Halász) 8.573734
BERIOT, C.-A. de: Violin Solo Music, Vol. 1 (Hristova) - 12 Scenes / 9 Studies / Prelude or Improvisation 8.572267
CLEMENT, F.: Solo Violin Works (Haoli Lin) 8.574497
DAVID, F.: 20 Virtuoso Studies / 6 Caprices, Op. 9 (Kuppel) 8.573048
DAVID, F.: Violin Suite, Op. 43 (Kuppel) 9.70213
ERNST, H.W.: Violin Music - Erlkönig / Le Carnaval de Venise / Polyphonic Studies (Spacek, Back) 8.572575
GODARD: Violin Concerto No. 2 / Concerto romantique / Scenes poetiques 8.570554
HALVORSEN, J.: Sarabande con variazioni / Passacaglia / Concert Caprice / BRUNI, A.B.: 6 Duos Concertants, Book 4 (Lomeiko, Zhislin) 8.572522
HERMANN, F.: Capriccios Nos. 1-3 / Grand Duo Brillant / Suite for 3 Violins / EICHHORN, J.P.: Variations (F. and A. Eichhorn, Kuppel, Hulshoff) 8.572066
HUBAY, J.: Violin Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 / Scenes de la Csarda Nos. 3 and 4 (Hanslip, Bournemouth Symphony, Mogrelia) 8.572078
JOACHIM, J.: Violin Concerto, Op. 11, "In the Hungarian Style" / Violin Concerto in G Minor, Op. 3 (Suyoen Kim, Staatskapelle Weimar, Halasz) 8.570991
KREUTZER, R.: Violin Concertos Nos. 17-19 (A. Strauss, San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra, Mogrelia) 8.570380
KUMMER, F.A. / SCHUBERT, F. François: Duos for Violin and Cello (Eichhorn, Hülshoff) 8.573000
LIPINSKI, K.: Capriccios, Opp. 10 and 27 (Xi Chen) 8.572665
LIPIŃSKI, K.: Trios for 2 Violins and Cello, Opp. 8 and 12 (Proniewicz, A. and J. Roszkowski) 8.573776
RODE, P.: 12 Etudes for Violin Solo / Duos for 2 Violins (N. and R. Koeckert) 8.572604
RODE, P.: 24 Caprices for Solo Violin (A. Strauss) 8.570958
RODE, P.: Violin Concertos Nos. 1, 5 and 9 (Eichhorn, Jena Philharmonic, Pasquet) 8.572755
RODE, P.: Violin Concertos Nos. 11 and 12 (Eichhorn, Jena Philharmonic, Pasquet) 8.573474
RODE, P.: Violin Concertos Nos. 2 and 8 (Eichhorn, Jena Philharmonic, Pasquet) 8.573054
RODE, P.: Violin Concertos Nos. 3, 4 and 6 (Eichhorn, Jena Philharmonic, Pasquet) 8.570767
RODE, P.: Violin Concertos Nos. 7, 10, 13 (Eichhorn, SWR Kaiserslautern Orchestra, Pasquet) 8.570469
SAINT-GEORGES, J.B.C. de: Violin Concertos, Opp. 2 and 7 (Fumika Mohri, Czech Chamber Philharmonic, Pardubice, M. Halász) 8.574452
SAINT-LUBIN, L. de: Violin Virtuoso Works, Vol. 1 - Grand Duo Concertant / 2 Salonstucke / Potpourri (Khitruk, Kopelman) 8.572019
SARASATE, P. de: Violin and Orchestra Music, Vol. 1 (Tianwa Yang, Navarre Symphony, Martinez-Izquierdo) 8.572191
SARASATE, P. de: Violin and Orchestra Music, Vol. 2 (Tianwa Yang, Navarre Symphony, Martinez-Izquierdo) 8.572216
SARASATE, P. de: Violin and Orchestra Music, Vol. 3 (Tianwa Yang, Navarre Symphony, Martinez-Izquierdo) 8.572275
SARASATE, P. de: Violin and Orchestra Music, Vol. 4 (Tianwa Yang, Navarre Symphony, Martinez-Izquierdo) 8.572276
SARASATE, P. de: Violin and Piano Music, Vol. 1 (Tianwa Yang, Hadulla) 8.557767
SARASATE, P. de: Violin and Piano Music, Vol. 2 (Tianwa Yang, Hadulla) 8.570192
SARASATE, P. de: Violin and Piano Music, Vol. 3 (Tianwa Yang, Hadulla) 8.570893
SARASATE, P. de: Violin and Piano Music, Vol. 4 - Transcriptions (Tianwa Yang, Hadulla) 8.572709
SAURET, É.: 24 Études Caprices, Vol. 1 - Nos. 1-7 (Rashidova) 8.573704
SAURET, É.: 24 Études Caprices, Vol. 2 - Nos. 8-13 (Rashidova) 8.573843
SAURET, É.: 24 Études Caprices, Vol. 3 - Nos. 14-19 (Rashidova) 8.573975
SAURET, É.: 24 Études Caprices, Vol. 4 - Nos. 20-24 (Rashidova) 8.574159
SAURET, É.: Violin and Piano Music - Scenes villageoises / Souvenir d'Orient / Souvenir de Los Angeles (Wiancko, Vainshtein) 8.572366
SEITZ, F.: Violin Concertos, Vol. 1 - Nos. 1-5 (Hyejin Chung, Warren Lee) 8.573801
SEITZ, F.: Violin Concertos, Vol. 2 - Nos. 6-10 / Op. 25 (Hyejin Chung, Warren Lee) 8.573965
SERVAIS, A.F. / GHYS, J. / LEONARD, H. / VIEUXTEMPS, H.: Grand Duos (Eichhorn, Hulshoff) 8.572188
SIVORI, C.: 12 Etudes-caprices / La genoise / Folies espagnoles (Luciani, Motterle) 8.572484
SPOHR, L.: Concertantes Nos. 1 and 2 / Duet in G Major, Op. 3, No. 3 (Kraggerud, Bjora, Oslo Camerata, Baratt Due Chamber Orchestra, Barratt-Due) 8.570840
SPOHR, L.: Violin Concertos Nos. 6, 8, 11 (Lamsma, Sinfonia Finlandia, P. Gallois) 8.570528
VIEUXTEMPS, H.: Fantasia appassionata / Ballade and Polonaise / Fantaisie-Caprice / Greeting to America (Keylin, Slovak Radio Symphony, Mogrelia) 8.570974
VIEUXTEMPS, H.: Fantasie, "La Sentimentale" / Variations on Bellini's Norma (Alexander Markov, Thüringen Philharmonie Gotha-Eisenach, M. Huber) 8.574363
VIEUXTEMPS, H.: Violin and Orchestra Works - Souvenir de Russie / Old England / Duo brillant (Kuppel, Bogatyrev, Qatar Philharmonic, Bosch) 8.573993
VIEUXTEMPS, H.: Violin Concertos Nos. 1 and 4 8.554506
VIEUXTEMPS, H.: Violin Concertos Nos. 2 and 3 8.554114
VIEUXTEMPS, H.: Violin Concertos Nos. 5, 6 and 7 8.557016
VIEUXTEMPS, H.: Violin Solo Works - 6 Morceaux / La Chasse (version for violin solo) / Etudes, Opp. 16 and 48 (Kuppel) 8.573339
VIEUXTEMPS, H.: Voix intimes - Rarities for Violin and Piano (Lamaison, V. Csikos, Lechardeur) 8.579149
YSAŸE, E.: 6 Sonatas for Solo Violin, Op. 27 (Kaler) 8.555996
YSAŸE, E.: 6 Sonatas for Solo Violin, Op. 27 (Tianwa Yang) 8.572995
YSAYE, E.: String Trio, "Le Chimay" / Sonata for 2 Violins / Cello Sonata (Kraggerud, Monsen, Tomter, Ree) 8.570977