Leonidas Kavakos & Enrico Pace by Beethoven, Bartók, Ravel, Franck, Schubert, Nuo (2023/2023), Stora scenen, Karlstad, Sweden

With his breathtaking virtuoso playing and his charismatic radiance, Leonidas Kavakos is a sought-after soloist on the big concert stages. He appears regularly with the very best orchestras and has been a soloist with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on several occasions. Chamber music is also close to his heart and in 2017 he took a seat on stage at Konserthuset Stockholm together with pianist Yuja Wang. Now we get to experience him with the pianist Enrico Pace, who got a catapult start to his career when he won the international Franz Liszt competition in Utrecht in 1989. He often appears with musicians such as Leonidas Kavakos and Frank Peter Zimmermann and as a soloist with the major orchestras of Europe, North America and Asia. Violin sonatas by Beethoven and Bartók are performed here. Beethoven's early Violin Sonata No. 1 is a lively piece that ends in a playful rondo. All the more severe is Béla Bartók's Violin Sonata No. 2. "Only a violinist of the highest order has any chance of learning them," Bartók wrote in a letter about his violin sonatas. At the same time, dance-like rhythms taken from Hungarian folk music can be heard, for example in the second movement. Ravel also took inspiration from other genres in his sonata, namely jazz and blues. The concert ends with César Franck's A major sonata. The beautiful and deep harmonies have contributed to the piece becoming one of his most famous and popular.