Bartók, J.S. Bach & Schneeberger: Solo Violin Works

Russian violinist Dmitry Smirnov’s début recording on FHR features works by master baroque composer (J.S. Bach), a leading figure of 20th century music (Béla Bartók) and a wonderful newly discovered work by influential Swiss violinist Hansheinz Schneeberger who died in 2019. The Schneeberger Sonata, written two years before Bartók’s Sonata, is a violin show piece, displaying much imagination in its idiomatic and virtoustic violin writing – this is the first recording of the work. There are many connections that link these three works together – the Bartók and Schneeberger sonatas show influences of Bach. Also, Bartók’s First Violin Concerto was premièred by Schneeberger. On this album Smirnov plays a modern violin made by Philipp Bonhoeffer (Bartók and Schneeberger) and a 1795 Johann Schönfelder violin (Bach).