Release Date: 29 April 2016
Label: Challenge Classics
Packaging Type: Super Jewel Case (SACD)
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 608917272628
Genres: Classical
Description
The third recording by the exuberant Dutch viola player Esther Apituley on Challenge Classics is this Hybrid SACD entirely devoted to transcriptions from Bach's solo works for violin and cello. The focus of the disc, and the work with which it culminates, is a viola version of the famous Chaconne from the Partita No 2 for solo violin.
The recording venue was a 12th century chapel, called Sant Bartomeu de Torres, in northern Spain which "has a really special acoustic, and lovely views out across the Pyrenees".
Amsterdan-born, Esther Apituley studied with Misha Geller at the Sweelinck Conservatory of Amsterdam, and with Bruno Giuranna at the Hochschule for Musik, Berlin. In 1990 she started a career as a soloist and gave her first recital in the Concertgebouw. Over the years Apituley has worked with the Borodin Quartet, the Colorado Quartet, the Hollandia theatre group, and Dansgroep Krisztina de Châtel and as a soloist with the National Ballet Orchestra, the North Holland Philharmonic Orchestra, the Metropole Orchestra, and Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra, performing the viola concertos of Berlioz, Bartók, and Chiel Meijering, Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante, and Lachrymae by Britten.
In 2009 she was appointed artistic director of the ViolaViola Foundation which promotes the instrument and encourages new audiences through its Festival. With Bach & Bleach – a theatre production about a violinist and a cleaning lady – Apituley performs at festivals in the Netherlands and abroad.
Apituley's previous recordings for Challenge Classics were Violent Viola (CC72156) in 2005 and Voila Viola (CC72165) in 2007, both of which featured unusual programming that raised quite a few eyebrows but were widely praised.
Personnel: Esther Apituley (viola)
Tracklisting
Narratio Quartet
Piano Duo Scholtes & Janssens
Matteo Cicchitti, Musica Elegentia
Cappella Pratensis, Stratton Bull, Sollazzo Ensemble
La Sfera Armoniosa, Oscar Verhaar, Mike Fentross
Simona Marchesi, Bartolomeo Dandolo Marchesi
Ben Kim, Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra
Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Jan Willem de Vriend
Ensemble La Francais
Kenneth Hamilton
Christoph Croise; Andrey Baranov; Alexander Panfilov
Trio Parnassus
Katharina Kammerloher (mezzo-soprano), Arttu Kataja (baritone), Eric Schneider (piano)
BachWerkVokal, Gordon Safari
Ostrava New Orchestra, Owen Underhill, Ostravska Banda, Petr Kotik, Elision Ensemble, Arditti Quartet, Switch~ Ensemble, Jason Thorpe Buchanan
Kilian Herold, Barbara Buntrock, Florian Donderer, Tanja Tetzlaff
