Pizzicato

Violeta Dinescu, born in Bucharest in 1953, is a Romanian pianist, composer and university teacher who has lived in Germany since 1982. From her oeuvre in various instrumentations, of which the best known are her operas, above all the children’s opera ‘May 35’, works for solo violin are heard here. In her chamber music, Dinescu can experiment and, so to speak, use incorruptible standards. She knows how to formulate her musical ideas with sharpness, and her inventiveness seems to unfold almost without limit. In doing so, she has kept herself apart from seemingly compelling schools. Her music straddles classical tonality, but above all offers new listening challenges with different intensities and techniques.

The titles of the works already suggest that Dinescu often finds extra-musical references for her compositions, which, however, seek to open up new levels and are not of a retelling or descriptive nature. With these connections she always opens up broad emotional possibilities, which also manifest themselves in technical playing requirements as well as creative freedom.

In Irina Muresanu, Violeta Dinescu has found an ideal and devoted interpreter. Starting with Aretusa, which Muresanu played at the Montreal International Competition, the violinist has gradually acquired further repertoire by Dinescu, thus also internalizing the breath of the music. In her performances, she also manages to show the signature of the music that can be located in Romania. She has developed a deep understanding of these works and is able to bring out tension or transcendental moments, for example. In working with the composer for these recordings, she was able to refine this approach once again.

Thus, one may understand this musical partnership as an ideal union, which is also evident in the listening. Muresanu succeeds admirably in going the full distance intensively and effectively presenting all the possibilities of the works and the violin playing.

[“Supersonic” recording award]

—Uwe Krusch