Rosanne Philippens, Julien Quentin, NJO, Xian Zhang - Myth: Rosanne Philippens Plays Szymanowski & Stravinsky (2015)

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Rosanne Philippens, Julien Quentin, NJO, Xian Zhang - Myth: Rosanne Philippens Plays Szymanowski & Stravinsky (2015)

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This may not eclipse Baiba Skride’s Szymanowski disc of last year, but it certainly establishes the young Dutch violinist Rosanne Philippens as someone to watch. Philippens has a muscular, joined-up sound, which expands excitingly and can then recede smoothly in a moment. In the Violin Concerto No 1 she is partnered by Holland’s NJO, an orchestra of under-30s, conducted by Xian Zhang. On the remaining items, which include the three-movement Myths, her pianist is Julien Quentin, who is just as athletic and responsive. He provides playful piano cascades in La Fontaine d’Aréthuse and insistent ripples in Narcisse, in which Philippens’s languid violin line does indeed seem beguiled by its own beauty. The glassy effects and tense swoops of Dryades et Pan successfully evoke a dry, dusty summer wind, and together Philippens and Quentin career excitingly through the Tarantella. They could have stopped there: three brief pieces by Stravinsky are nicely done, but feel like filler.

Review by Erica Jeal, The Guardian

The Netherlands-based violinist Rosanne Philippens is a significant young talent whose varied tonal palette especially suits Szymanowski’s music, though in that respect she faces formidable competition, CD-wise, from the likes of Skride, Zehetmair, Danczowska, Zimmermann, Steinbacher and Tetzlaff. The formula needed for this particular concerto includes tonal translucency and technical agility, that and an ability to dart in and around the work’s multi-layered orchestral textures. Philippens connects well with Szymanowski’s sensual muse, though the National Youth Orchestra of the Netherlands under Xian Zhang, while impressively proficient, don’t achieve the level of pointillist precision that, say, Rattle in Birmingham does for Zehetmair, Wit in Warsaw for Zimmermann or Janowski in Berlin for Steinbacher. All score higher in the glitter department, which in this of all works matters. Philippens likes her expressive portamentos and has plenty of wrist power in reserve for the more demanding passages. Couplings will as ever be of the essence.

Skride, Zehetmair, Danczowska and Zimmermann all usefully add the Second Concerto (Zimmermann providing a further bonus in Britten’s marvellous Violin Concerto), whereas Philippens offers various Szymanowski pieces for violin and piano with Julien Quentin, plus a brief Stravinsky sequence, the winsome ‘Chanson russe’ (ie Pasha’s aria from Mavra) being especially attractive. The Szymanowski works face a significant digital rival in the more comprehensive Hyperion collection of the ‘complete music for violin and piano’ featuring Alina Ibragimova with pianist Cédric Tiberghien (though Ibragimova passes on the transcription of ‘Roxana’s Song’ from King Roger, which Philippens includes). Comparing the two at the start of ‘La fontaine d’Aréthuse’, the most famous of the three Myths, is enough to establish Ibragimova’s sense of atmosphere, the way she connects with Tiberghien, and their shared sense of tonal colour. The entrancing Nocturne and Tarantella proves likewise, Ibragimova’s fine-tipped Nocturne quite in a class of its own. Summing up, I’d opt for Ibragimova and Tiberghien in the duo pieces and either Zimmermann or Zehetmair in the Concerto. However, Philippens is certainly good enough to please those who fancy this particular programme.

Review by Rob Cowan, Gramophone

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Rosanne Philippens, Julien Quentin, NJO, Xian Zhang - Myth: Rosanne Philippens Plays Szymanowski & Stravinsky (2015)

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Rosanne Philippens, Julien Quentin, NJO, Xian Zhang - Myth: Rosanne Philippens Plays Szymanowski & Stravinsky (2015)

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Rosanne Philippens, Julien Quentin, NJO, Xian Zhang - Myth: Rosanne Philippens Plays Szymanowski & Stravinsky (2015)

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Rosanne Philippens, Julien Quentin, NJO, Xian Zhang - Myth: Rosanne Philippens Plays Szymanowski & Stravinsky (2015)

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