Gramophone Magazine
Awards Issue 2024
Editor's Choice
Johan Dalene (violin), Peter Friis Johansson (piano)
Ravel: Tzigane
Massenet: Meditation (from Thaïs)
Tchaikovsky: Souvenir d'un lieu cher, Op. 42
Maier, A: 6 Pieces for Violin and Piano: IV. Allegro molto
Saint-Saëns: Introduction & Rondo capriccioso, Op. 28
Falla: Spanish Dance No. 1 from La vida breve
Maurice Ravel, Fritz Kreisler: Recitativo and Scherzo-Caprice, Op. 6
Waxman, F: Carmen Fantasy
The repertoire we have chosen for this album consists mainly of pieces that have been with me since my childhood. With this recital, Johan Dalene, accompanied by Peter Friis Johansson, offers us a selection of popular violin pieces that have accompanied him since his early years. After hearing them in the family car on long journeys, he went on to learn them and then play them in competitions and in concerts. He now gives us (and himself) a treat and continues the tradition of great violinists such as Heifetz, Perlman and Vengerov, who have all made recordings of favourite encores and recital pieces. To finally record them himself proved to be an ‘extremely inspiring and challenging project’, says Dalene. The programme is built around three virtuoso works, Tzigane (Ravel), Introduction and Rondo capriccioso (Saint-Saëns) and Carmen Fantasy (Waxman), alongside which more reflective pieces by Massenet, Tchaikovsky, Falla and Kreisler have been included. Also featured is a rarely played miniature by Swedish composer Amanda Maier – a work which, according to Dalene, ‘is a gem full of spirit!’ A programme that celebrates the multiple sides of the violin, at times virtuoso, at times lyrical, always seductive.
"Dalene (born August 2000) claims a level of tonal distinction that many of his peers, even the best of them, lack: he knows how to use vibrato and portamento in pursuit of a singing line (he’s no mere imitator of past players), and when it comes to brief morceaux, such as most of these are, he invests each phrase with a wealth of feeling and style." - Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2024
