12 Stradivari (Hybr)

For the first time in history, twelve of the finest violins ever made by Antonio Stradivari have travelled across the world to be recorded in one album for a ground-breaking new project between violinist Janine Jansen, Decca Classics and J & A Beare. The resulting album, 12 Stradivari, captures the individual characteristics of each instrument in a specifically curated repertoire accompanied by Sir Antonio Pappano. Janine and Pappano selected pieces of the classical repertoire to highlight the ongoing dialogue between past and present. Playing Henry Vieuxtemps' Romances on the very same 1710 Stradivari he owned, or Fritz Kreisler's Liebesleid on his 1733 Stradivari felt not only appropriate but significant too. Other violins were matched with pieces by composers such as Sarasate and Szymanovsky while others still were based on Janine's sensibility. Some of these 12 violins have not been played for many decades and, possibly, have never been commercially recorded. Others belonged to legendary virtuosi, including Fritz Kreisler, Nathan Milstein, Ida Haendel and Oscar Shumsky.