LUKA FAULISI - ARIA [CD]

Format: CD
Catalogue No.: 19658765272
Barcode: 0196587652722
Release Date: 03 Mar 2023
Genre: Classical

“Aria” marks the refreshingly unconventional Sony Classical debut of rising Italian-Serbian-French violinist Luka Faulisi. The album is now available in CD format. Enhancing operatic melodies with violinistic fireworks, the recording presents arias and scenes arranged for violin and piano by some of the great violinist-composers of the past and including an arrangement by Faulisi himself. Among the operatic jewels included are Franz Waxman’s Carmen Fantasy (as made famous by Jascha Heifetz), Henryk Wieniawski’s Fantasy on Themes from Gounod’s Faust, Leopold Auer’s arrangement of ‘Lensky’s Aria’ from Tchaikovsky’s opera Eugene Onegin and Fausili’s own version of Violetta’s glittering aria ‘Sempre Libera’ from Verdi’s La Traviata. In addition to popular classics, the album’s rarities include the stunning ‘Roxana’s aria’ from King Roger, an opera from 1924 by the expressionist Polish composer Karol Szymanowski (arranged by Pawel Kochanski). Also included is Efrem Zimbalist’s fantasy on melodies from Rimsky-Korsakov’s fairytale opera Coq d’or. Storytelling and the sensitivity of the human voices are at the heart of the album, says Faulisi. ‘I was looking for arrangements that would avoid any sense of gratuitous virtuosity and excessive ostentation.’ Luka Faulisi is one of the most promising violinists of the young generation. He signed with Sony Classical in 2022 aged just 20. Faulisi studied at the Maastricht Conservatory with Boris Belkin and now at the Academy Lorenzo Perosi, Biella, Italy with Pavel Berman.