EMI/Virgin Classics release Valeriy Sokolov's first concerto recording

5 October 2011

Valeriy Sokolov’s first recording as an exclusive EMI/Virgin Classics artist has just been released, featuring Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto and Bartók’s Violin Concerto No 2. Recorded in Autumn 2010 with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich conducted by David Zinman, this new concerto programme combines works from the 19th and 20th centuries, both containing elements of folk music.

The 24-year-old Ukrainian already features in the catalogue as the subject of a documentary released on DVD in 2006, Bruno Monsaingeon’s “Natural Born Fiddler”, while his interpretation of George Enescu’s Violin Sonata No 3 can be heard on a CD of the Romanian composer’s chamber music which became available in 2009. His first concert DVD of the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Vladimir Ashkenazy was released in 2010 for Idéale Audience.

"Sokolov's violin playing requires every superlative in the dictionary," said the UK’s Classic FM Magazine, in 2010, while The Strad described one of his performances as "full of effective contrasts, steel alternating with velvet … his sound sumptuous when he gave it free rein and thrilling when high on the G string. It was dramatic and exhilarating, and bound together by a firm sense of direction."

Engagements this season and last include concerto performances with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and debuts with the Orchestre de Paris and NDR Radiophilharmonie. Highlights also include recitals at the Mariinsky Theatre, the Verbier and Colmar Festivals and his own festival in Kharkov, Ukraine.