Gil Shaham and Nicholas McGegan in all five of Mozart’s violin concertos.

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Mozart’s five violin concertos were all five written in his late teens. Endlessly melodic, inventive, each typically structured in three movements: fast/slow/fast, with the final movement often in Rondo form, they are among the most perfect works from the Mozart catalogue.

Nicholas McGegan beautifully leads the SWR Baden-Baden Freiburg Symphony Orchestra in this double CD recording on the orchestra’s own SWR label.  The American violinist Gil Shaham is the peerlessly elegant soloist, masterfully handling the quick paced movements in all five works with playfulness and grace, and elsewhere spinning out long-lined cantabile adagios in the K. 207 and K. 216.

In addition to the five concertos, the Rondo in C Major, K. 373 is included in this offering from the SWR label.

Rafael de Acha ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”