María Dueñas

[Piet De Ridder]

I really enjoyed this: María Dueñas’ great performance of Saint-Saëns’ “Introduction et rondo capriccioso”, with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin conducted by Mihhail Gerts. Beautifully recorded at Berlin’s Teldex Studio.



Saint-Saëns’ “Introduction” may not be one of the timeless masterpieces for violin and orchestra, but it’s still a great and exciting piece, written and orchestrated with all of Saint-Saëns’ phenomenal skills, it has a brilliant part for the soloist and, when performed as well as it is here, it makes for ten completely satisfying musical minutes.
These 10 minutes are part of Dueñas’ recent album (her 2nd for Deutsche Grammophon): Paganini: 24 Caprices.

And as this year is the year we’re celebrating Ravel's 150th anniversary,, check out the young Dueñas — she was 17 at the time of this recording — in “Tzigane”.



There are lots of other great Dueñas moments to be found on YouTube, not in the least this recording of her own composition "Homage 1770", an expression of her love for the music of Beethoven.



A love which can also be heard blooming in her performance of the Beethoven concerto. Maybe not my favourite performance of this unspeakably beautiful piece, but it sure has many wonderful moments:



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[Linos]

Maria Dueñas is exceptionally talented. Even at such a young age, her sound and technique are impeccable.

In September she played Bruch's 1st Violin Concerto with us. She's such an amazing musician and it was a joy to hear her live in concert. She's also modest and kind. It will be interesting to follow her career. I am sure there is much more to come.

[RobS]

what a joy to listen to such a musician... I admit I never heard her name, but now I'll remember. Interpretation, intonation, phrasing and violin tone... just lovely. Thanks for the post Piet