(Nashville, TN) Leaf Music, violinist Francesca dePasquale and pianist Peter Takács announce the upcoming release of their new recording, Beethoven Violin Sonatas, Op. 30 (LM303), in digital format.
The three sonatas mark the beginning of Beethoven’s “heroic” middle period. Completed in 1802 and dedicated to Tsar Alexander I of Russia, they were written during one of the most tumultuous years of Beethoven’s life. Around this time, he penned the now-famous Heiligenstadt Testament, a poignant letter to his brothers revealing his despair over his worsening hearing loss. Though it reads like a farewell, the letter ends with a vow to persevere in the service of art. That inner struggle—between hopelessness and determination—finds voice in the music as Beethoven begins to push the familiar classical forms to new expressive ends.
Photo credit: Alexandra DeFurio
Celebrated for her “sincerity, intensity, and individual voice” (Philadelphia Inquirer) and praised for her “immaculate and discreet phrasing” (Strad Magazine), violinist Francesca dePasquale was the First Prize winner of the 2010 Irving M. Klein International String Competition. She was also awarded the 2014–2016 Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Fund for the Performing and Visual Arts and received the 2015 Classical Recording Foundation Young Artist Award. Francesca is currently a violin faculty member at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and previously was a member of the violin faculty for the Juilliard School Pre-College Program. She studied with Itzhak Perlman, Catherine Cho, and Robert Lipsett. Her earlier teachers include Hirono Oka, Charles Parker, and William dePasquale, with additional mentorship from Norman Carol and Arnold Steinhardt.
Hailed by The New York Times as “a marvelous pianist,” Peter Takács has performed widely to critical and audience acclaim and is noted for his penetrating and communicative musical interpretations. He enrolled at the Conservatoire de Paris at age fourteen, later earning full scholarships to Northwestern University and the University of Illinois, followed by a three-year fellowship at the Peabody Conservatory, where he completed his artistic training under the guidance of the renowned pianist Leon Fleisher. Takács has appeared as a guest soloist with major orchestras across the U.S. and internationally and has performed at prominent festivals, including Tanglewood, Music Mountain, Chautauqua Institution, ARIA International, the Schlern Music Festival in the Italian Alps, Tel Hai International Master Classes in Israel, and Sweden’s Helsingborg Festival. His recording of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas was released on the Cambria label in 2011 to critical acclaim.
Listen to Beethoven Violin Sonatas, Op. 30 on your favourite streaming platforms.
Leaf Music is an independent recording label based in Halifax, Nova Scotia and Nashville, Tennessee, making and distributing high-quality classical music recordings by artists and composers from across North America. 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 North America
-30-
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).
