“Virtuosity (that is) relentless, precise, and, above all, dazzling.” – the WholeNote
(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Leaf Music and Dorian Komanoff Bandy and Catherine Cosbey announce the January 24 release of their new recording Mozart: String Duos (LM297), including two never-before-recorded violin duets.
Mozart: String Duos presents vivid, period-instrument performances of Mozart’s two spectacular Duos for Violin and Viola (K. 423 in G major and K. 424 in B-flat Major), alongside newly discovered historical arrangements of the Violin Sonata K. 305 and arias from La clemenza di Tito. Following historical convention and drawing on groundbreaking research, Cosbey and Bandy insert extensive embellishments and cadenzas, capturing a degree of improvisatory freedom rarely heard in performances of Mozart’s string music. These pieces, as well as the arrangements, would have introduced many eighteenth-century listeners to Mozart’s music. Today, they conjure scenes of domestic music-making among family and friends.
Mozart’s Sonata for Piano and Violin K. 305 was transformed into a duet for two violins by an anonymous Parisian arranger in 1799 (eight years after Mozart’s death). This version and the opera arrangements were recently discovered in rare book libraries in Texas and Germany and may not have been heard since the early 1800s. They reveal how deftly musicians adapted Mozart’s music for performance at home.
Dorian Komanoff Bandy, associate professor at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music, is one of early music’s most energetic and versatile proponents. His repertoire spans four centuries and six instruments, and his performances have been praised for their “impressive emotional scope” and a “virtuosity [that is] relentless, precise, and above all, dazzling.” A leading Mozart specialist, Dorian has conducted award winning productions of Mozart’s operas on both sides of the Atlantic, and is the author of Mozart the Performer: Variations on the Showman’s Art, which he’ll discuss in an upcoming virtual forum on January 21.
Violinist Catherine Cosbey is a member of the Cavani String Quartet and was a founding member of the Linden String Quartet. Her performances, described by the Strad Magazine as “polished, radiant, and incisive,” have taken her to leading venues and festivals across the US, Canada, and Europe, including the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Esterhazy String Quartet Festival and Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. A frequent guest educator at festivals across North America, she currently serves on the violin and chamber music faculty at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music.
Both musicians perform on eighteenth-century German instruments. The album was recorded at St. Andrew’s United Church, Halifax, in June of 2024. Get your CD copy of Mozart: String Duos or listen to it on your favourite streaming platform.
Mozart: Strings Duo – Album Trailer
Leaf Music is an independent recording label based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, making and distributing high-quality classical music recordings by artists and composers from across Canada. Our growing catalogue of solo, orchestral, and chamber music is distributed by Naxos of America to the world’s most important music retailers, download providers, and streaming services. Leaf is also a provider of professional audio and video production, post-production services and integrated music marketing and distribution in Canada.
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MEDIA CONTACT:
For more information/photos or to arrange interviews, please contact Peggy Walt, peggy@leaf-music.ca
(902) 422-5403 (office) or (902) 476-1096 (cell).
