Following her recital dedicated to exiled composers (BIS-2332), Sueye Park joins forces with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, conducted by Valentin Egel, to present concertante works for violin and orchestra by Karl Goldmark and Jean Sibelius. The two composers may belong to different generations and cultures, but their musical DNA is strikingly similar; both were virtuoso violinists who weathered financial and political storms, drew inspiration from Mendelssohn and Wagner, and penned masterful violin concertos.
Their paths actually crossed in Vienna (1890–91) when Sibelius studied under Goldmark, and this brief but significant mentorship inspired violinist Sueye Park to pair their works on this album. At the heart of the album is Goldmark’s Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 28 (1877); a sweeping, virtuosic masterpiece that marries Hungarian folk inflections with German Romanticism. Complementing this are Sibelius’s exquisite shorter works: the late Suite JS 185, the lyrical Two Serious Melodies, Op. 77, and the highly expressive Humoresques, Op. 87. Together, this program celebrates two composers who were supremely at home writing for the violin—an instrument inextricably woven into the fabric of their musical identities.
