4CD 75 Years Ysaÿe & Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition   A 4CD box set, containing 8 great violin concertos, played by 8 outstanding laureates, inaugurates the celebrations of the 75th anniversary of the Ysaÿe and Queen Elisabeth Competition. In 2012 the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Eugène Ysaÿe Competition. In association with the ‘muso’ label, the Queen Elisabeth Competition has drawn on its extensive archives of unreleased recordings to put together a 4CD box set containing 8 of the most celebrated violin concertos as performed by some of the laureates who have made their mark on the history of the Competition. Handsomely presented as a CD-book, with texts, photographs, and reminiscences by laureates, the set contains live recordings made between 1967 and 2005, which were painstakingly remastered in 2011 in order to ensure optimal sound quality for today’s listeners. Founded in 1937 on the initiative of Queen Elisabeth, the first Ysaÿe Competition brought to Brussels a number of talented young violinists and a jury that would be the stuff of dreams for any lover of the instrument – and the name of the first laureate showed just how high the standard was: David Oistrakh! After an interruption caused by the Second World War, the Competition was revived in 1951, when it took the name of its patron: in future it would be known as the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition. The list of the laureates who have succeeded each other on stage at the Centre for Fine Arts (Palais des Beaux-Arts) over its 75 years is dazzling: Kogan, Senofsky, Sitkovetsky, Laredo, Michlin, Hirshhorn, Kremer, Fried, Volckaert, Horigome, Repin, Znaider, Skride, and Khachatryan, to name but a few. The set opens in 1967 with the Paganini Concerto, played by Philippe Hirshhorn – the quality of sound on this newly restored recording offers an opportunity to rediscover this great artist and teacher, who died in 1996, but not before he had influenced several generations of musicians – and the Elgar Concerto as interpreted by Gidon Kremer, never previously available on disc! It continues with performances by Miriam Fried in Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky’s indispensable concerto from Vadim Repin in 1989, and an equally memorable performance of the Sibelius Concerto by Nikolaj Znaider from 1997, the same year as Kristóf Baráti’s superb Beethoven concerto. The compilation concludes with two laureates from the past decade: the Hungarian violinistBarnabás Kelemen in the Bartók Concerto and, finally, Belgium’s own Yossif Ivanov in the Shostakovich. Eight concertos, eight artists, eight sensibilities, and eight very different sonorities can be enjoyed in these performances, each of which in its own way struck a chord with the jury and audience of the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition. CD1 (total time: 65’54) Pyotr TCHAIKOVSKY – Concerto in D major op. 35 Vadim Repin (Russia, 1st prize 1989) National Orchestra of Belgium – Georges Octors, conductor Jean SIBELIUS – Concerto in D minor op. 47 Nikolaj Znaider (Denmark, 1st prize 1997) Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Flanders – Marc Soustrot, conductor CD2 (total time: 72’53) Edward ELGAR – Concerto in B minor op. 61 Gidon Kremer (Latvia, 3rd prize 1967) National Orchestra of Belgium – René Defossez, conductor Nicolò PAGANINI – Concerto n. 1 in D major op. 6 Philippe Hirshhorn (Latvia, 1st prize 1967) National Orchestra of Belgium – René Defossez, conductor CD3 (total time: 71’17) Ludwig van BEETHOVEN – Concerto in D major op. 61 Kristóf Baráti (Hungary, 3rd prize 1997) Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Flanders – Marc Soustrot, conductor Felix MENDELSSOHN – Concerto in E minor op. 64 Miriam Fried (Israel, 1st prize 1971) Symphony Orchestra of the RTB/BRT – Daniel Sternefeld, conductor CD4 (total time: 72’59) Dmitry SHOSTAKOVICH – Concerto n. 1 in A minor op. 77 (99) Yossif Ivanov (Belgium, 2nd prize 2005) National Orchestra of Belgium – Gilbert Varga, conductor Bélà BARTÓK – Concerto n. 2 Barnabás Kelemen (Hungary, 3rd prize 2001) National Orchestra of Belgium – Gilbert Varga, conductor 4 CD Digibook Texts in English, French and Dutch Live recordings 1967-2005, remastered and restaured in 2011 Reference: MU-002 ORDER your 4CD box set on www.cd-elisabeth.be before midnight 15 November 2011 at the special price of 35,00- € (free shipping costs). The CD boxes will be shipped as soon as they are available.