Vadim Repin - Schumann, Ysaÿe, Tchaikovsky (1985 Reissue) (2016)

Child prodigy, competition winner, major recording artist, and international star of the concert stage, Vadim Repin is clearly one of the leading violinists of his generation. He carries all the credentials of superstardom: he has played with world-class orchestras and major conductors like Levine, Rattle, Muti, Rostropovich, Chailly, and Dutoit and collaborated in recital with Kissin, Argerich, Pletnev, Berezovsky, Bashmet, and many others. Moreover, he has recorded for major labels like DG, Erato, Philips, Warner Classics, and EuroArts, turning out consistently acclaimed performances in a variety of repertory from Mozart, Beethoven, Paganini, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky to Sibelius, Ravel, Prokofiev, Bartók, Shostakovich, and contemporaries like John Adams and Sofia Gubaidulina. Repin has achieved all this despite the view he is a straightforward player, a violinist who displays few, if any mannerisms in his style. Not that his technique isn't on display in concert; Repin is known as one of the finest players of bravura music of his time, as his performances and recordings of the Paganini Caprices and concertos by Prokofiev, Shostakovich, and Bartók will attest.