Grieg: The Violin Sonatas Haik Kazazyan & Philip Kopachevsky

• Edvard Grieg (1843 - 1907): Violin Sonata No. 1 in F Major, Op. 8:
• 1 I. Allegro con brio - Andante 09:26
• 2 II. Allegretto quasi andantino 05:05
• 3 III. Allegro molto vivace 09:04
• Violin Sonata No. 2 in G Major, Op. 13:
• 4 I. Lento doloroso - Allegro vivace 08:56
• 5 II. Allegretto tranquillo 06:46
• 6 III. Allegro animato 05:25
• Violin Sonata No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 45:
• 7 I. Allegro molto ed appassionato 09:10
• 8 II. Allegretto espressivo alla romanza 06:41
• 9 III. Allegro animato 07:49
• Total Runtime 01:08:22

Info for Grieg: The Violin Sonatas

In Haik Kazazyan’s first album for Delos, Opera Fantasies, the brilliant Armenian violin virtuoso demonstrated the fiery, passionate, and technically astonishing sides of his artistry. And the same musical virtues are certainly on display here, in his glowing rendition of the three violin sonatas by the Norwegian master Edvard Grieg.

In this new album – with dazzling and soulful collaboration from the rising young Russian piano wizard Philipp Kopachevsky – he also applies the sensitivity, subtlety, and interpretive insight needed to bring these three chamber masterpieces to vibrant life.

Composed across a period ranging from Grieg’s early twenties through middle age, these comparatively unfamiliar pieces not only confirm the composer’s winning ways with melodic invention and nationalistic impulse, but also serve as a revealing guide to Grieg’s evolution as a composer.

“(Haik Kazazyan) … is a real instrumental talent: big, gleaming sound, virtuoso skills and tender sensibilities.” (The New York Times)

Haik Kazazyan, violin
Philip Kopachevsky, piano

Haik Kazazyan
Prize winner of Wieniawski Competition (2001), the XII Tchaikovsky Competition (2002), the International Violin Competition Sion Valais in Switzerland (2004), ‘M.Long and J.Thibaud’ Violin Competition in Paris (2005), International Violin Competition named after Isang Yun in South Korea (2007), Haik Kazazyan is one of the perspective young violinists of his generation.He is regularly invited to perform in many countries with famous orchestras and musicians, such as Scottish Royal National Orchestra, Russian Chamber Orchestra and Russian National Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Prague Philharmonic orchestra, Dublin National Orchestra, Munich Chamber orchestra, Moscow chamber orchestra, S.Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, Kazan, Samara Symphony orchestras and many others.Haik played as a soloist with conductors Andrew Litton, Alexander Liebreich, Alexander Lazarev, Ricardo Averbach, Alan Buribayev, Constantine Orbelian, Jac van Steen, David Brophy, Pavel Kogan, Alexander Polianichko, and a chamber musician with pianists Freddy Kempf, Ekaterina Mechetina, Andrey Shibko, Vadim Kholodenko, violinists Gordan Nikolitch, Boris Brovtsyn, cellists Alexander Bouzlov, Sergey Antonov, Boris Andrianov and many other great musicians of our generation.

Philipp Kopachevsky
A soloist of the Moscow State Academic Philharmonic and a prize-winner at international competitions, the young pianist Philipp Kopachevsky had won tremendous audience admiration and acclaim by the age of twenty-three. He regularly appears in recital in Great Britain, Germany, the USA, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Greece, Poland and Spain as well as throughout Russia. Kopachevsky has won particular popularity in Japan, where especially for NHK TV he recorded a disc of piano music by Chopin.

“The young pianist’s playing has a perceptibly personal message. The natural blend of mastery and spiritual maturity with raw emotion, the freedom with which the pianist expresses himself and his Romantic sincerity and nobleness win one over from the very first notes...” “From the first notes he plays, you sense the pianist’s powerful and lyrical individuality. His piano sings – this is a very rare quality nowadays, typical of a Romantic worldview; he retains clarity in his pianism and his phrasing is beautiful and pliant...” These are the kind of reviews Philipp Kopachevsky receives from music critics.

Philipp Kopachevsky was born in Moscow in 1990. He graduated from the Central School of Music of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatoire. He is currently a student at the Moscow Conservatoire (class of Professor Sergei Dorensky).

Philipp Kopachevsky has been a prize-winner at eight prestigious international competitions, among them the Х International Franz Schubert Piano Competition (Germany).

The musician has performed with the world’s great orchestras, among them the English Chamber Orchestra, the Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Moscow Philharmonic, the Symphony Orchestra of the Kolobov Novaya Opera Theatre in Moscow, the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, the Moscow State Academic Symphony Orchestra under Pavel Kogan, the Novaya Rossiya State Symphony Orchestra, the Yevgeny Svetlanov State Symphony Orchestra of Russia and the Academic Symphony Orchestra of the St Petersburg Philharmonic. He has collaborated with such illustrious conductors as Mstislav Rostropovich, Vladimir Spivakov, Mikhail Pletnev, Yevgeny Kolobov, Yuri Simonov, Alexander Dmitriev, Andrew Gourlay, William Noll, Bjarte Engeset, Charles Olivieri-Munroe, Yevgeny Bushkov, Maxim Vengerov, Paul Watkins, Jan Latham-Koenig, Dorian Wilson and Dmitry Liss among others.

Philipp Kopachevsky has appeared at numerous international festivals, such as the Andrei Sakharov Festival (Nizhny Novgorod), the Vera Lotar-Shevchenko Memorial Competition (Novosibirsk), the Steinway Festival, the Miami Piano Festival, the Arts Naples World Festival (USA), the Colmar International Festival (France), the Mstislav Rostropovich Memorial Festival (Baku), the Baltic Seasons festival (Kaliningrad), Vladimir Spivakov Invites, Stars on Baikal, Crescendo and Denis Matsuev Invites among numerous others.

He performed at the world premiere of choreographer Benjamin Millepied’s ballet Without at the Mariinsky Theatre.

Philipp Kopachevsky is involved in the Moscow State Academic Philharmonic’s project Stars of the 21st Century.

Booklet for Grieg: The Violin Sonatas