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Maria Duenas

Beethoven and Beyond

Deutsche Grammophon
Release Date: May 5, 2023

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1 Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61 / I. Allegro ma non troppo (Cadenza: Dueñas)  
2 II. Larghetto (Cadenza: Dueñas)  
3 III. Rondo. Allegro (Cadenza: Dueñas)  
4 Spohr: Concertante in G Major for Violin and Harp, WoO 13: Adagio  
5 Ysaÿe: Berceuse Op. 20  
6 Saint-Saëns: Havanaise, Op. 83  
7 Wieniawski: Légende in G minor, Op. 17  
8 Kreisler: Liebesleid  
9 Spohr: Cadenza (to Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61: I. Allegro ma non troppo)  
10 Ysaÿe: Cadenza (to Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61: I. Allegro ma non troppo)  
11 Saint-Saëns: Cadenza (to Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61: I. Allegro ma non troppo)  
12 Wieniawski: Cadenza (to Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61: I. Allegro ma non troppo)  
13 Kreisler: Cadenza (to Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61: I. Allegro ma non troppo)  
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“You can’t rely on virtuosity in Beethoven’s concerto; you have to reveal yourself,” says María Dueñas. And that can only be done through sound.” The supremely talented Spanish violinist will launch her Deutsche Grammophon career in bold fashion by delivering an intriguingly individual interpretation of the Beethoven Violin Concerto, one of the most musically demanding and emotionally profound works in the repertoire. The concerto was recorded live during a recent run of three acclaimed performances at Vienna’s Musikverein with the Wiener Symphoniker and Manfred Honeck. It is now the opening work on her DG debut album, Beethoven and Beyond. Featuring her own newly written cadenzas for each movement, the recording reveals María Dueñas as both performer and composer. 

The album also includes a series of both popular and lesser-known showpieces for violin and orchestra by Kreisler, Saint-Saëns, Spohr, Wieniawski and Ysaÿe. To complement these works and the concerto, Dueñas has recorded a companion disc of cadenzas written for the first movement of the Beethoven by those same five composers. Beethoven and Beyond is scheduled for release on 5 May 2023.

María Dueñas, who has been studying in Vienna with the world-renowned Professor Boris Kuschnir for several years, won first prize with her interpretation of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto at the final of the Viktor Tretyakov International Violin Competition in September 2021. By then, DG had already invited her to record the work on the strength of a performance given earlier that year with the Dresdner Philharmoniker and Marek Janowski. “Beethoven’s Violin Concerto has accompanied me during the most important moments of my life,” notes Dueñas. “The move from Germany to Vienna on the recommendation of my mentor Maestro Vladimir Spivakov, my education, and now the recording – Beethoven has always played a part.” She is particularly pleased to have recorded the work with Manfred Honeck, another of her mentors.

Beethoven wrote his Violin Concerto for Franz Clement, one of the greatest players of the age. Completed two days before the premiere in December 1806, his score embraced Clement’s famed virtuosity and set him and his successors a supreme musical challenge. Its first movement alone lasts more than twenty-five minutes. The stillness of its slow movement is offset by the surging energy of its finale, qualities underlined by the exquisite lyricism and the rhythmic vitality of María Dueñas’s reading here. 

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