L’Aurore

Carolin Widmann takes us on a 1000-year musical journey with only a lone violin as company. Starting with Hildegard von Bingen’s haunting antiphon “Spiritus sanctus vivificans vita”, which transfers effortlessly from voices to violin, Widmann proves an inspiring travelling companion. Her programme explores the expressive powers of her instrument and, whether in George Enescu’s dramatic “Fantaisie concertante”, Eugène Ysaÿe’s Sonata No. 5 or George Benjamin’s Three Miniatures, it’s all done with immense concentration and focused power. The heritage of Bach is ever-present, something triumphantly celebrated in the Violin Partita No. 2 by the great J. S. Bach himself, with its crowning “Ciaccona”, surely one of the violin repertoire’s greatest works.