Waghalter CD awarded “Supersonic” citation by Pizzicato Magazine

Every month, the prestigious European music journal Pizzicato reviews hundreds of newly-released CDs. Of these, only a handful receives its coveted Supersonic designation, which it reserves for those it considers “An Extraordinary and Masterly Achievement [Aussergewöhnliche Spitzenleistung.] A Must-Buy!” The December 2012 issue of Pizzicato has awarded this designation to the new Naxos CD of the Ignatz Waghalter’s Violin Concerto and other music for Violin, which features the brilliant Polish-born soloist Irmina Trynkos.

Review by Remy Franck, Editor in Chief
December 2012

What a discovery: The Violin Concerto of composer Ignatz Waghalter (1881-1949) was, with its romantic characteristics, somewhat “out of fashion” at the time of its composition in 1911 – but the wealth of ideas in this composition [Einfallsreichtum der Komposition] is fascinating. And that goes as well for the other works in this CD.

Ignatz Waghalter was born into a Jewish family in Warsaw as the fifteenth of twenty children. Already as a child he was a virtuoso violinist and pianist. At the age of 17 he went to Berlin to seek his fortune there as a musician. He came to the attention of the famous violinist Joseph Joachim, who managed Waghalter’s admission into Berlin’s Academy of the Arts. He quickly made a name for himself and became principal conductor of the Berlin Opera House and New York Symphony. Aside from his activity as a conductor he composed symphonic works, operas and chamber music.

An example of the latter is also represented in the Waghalter Project of Violinist Irmina Trynkos. The passionately formulated Violin Sonata is an enrapturing [hinreissendes] piece of music which was with good reason distinguished in 1902 with the Mendelssohn Prize.

The engaged interpretations of the British violinist Irmina Trynkos, who is of Greek-Polish ancestry, is an eloquent testimony on behalf of unjustly forgotten music.

[Translated from the original German]

The review as posted on the Naxos website may be accessed at: http://www.naxos.com/SharedFiles/Reviews/8.572809_Pizzicato_122012_gr.pdf