James Ehnes
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Special offer. Aaron Jay Kernis & James Newton Howard: Violin Concertos
RecommendedJames Ehnes (violin), Andrew Armstrong (piano)
Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Ludovic Morlot, Cristian Măcelaru
This disc showcases three commissions aimed squarely at the Canadian virtuoso’s dazzling skillset. At the centre is a concerto by James Newton Howard…The work is lyrical, wildly cavorting and... —
Awards:
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BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2018, Concerto Choice
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Grammy Awards, 61st Awards (2018), Winner - Classical Instrumental Solo
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Grammy Awards, 61st Awards (2018), Winner - Contemporary Classical Composition
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Special offer. Elgar: Violin Concerto & Serenade for Strings
RecommendedJames Ehnes (violin)
Philharmonia Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis
James Ehnes has a lovely ripe vibrato and an expressive openness that touches the heart from his first entry. It's when it comes to the balancing of confessional intimacy with symphonic purposefulness... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 29th September 2008
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Gramophone Magazine, January 2008, Editor's Choice
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Gramophone Awards, 2008, Winner - Concerto
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Special offer. Barber, Walton and Korngold: Violin Concertos
RecommendedJames Ehnes (violin)
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Bramwell Tovey
It's an inspired coupling, as well as a generous one, to have these three high-romantic concertos together. James Ehnes gives superb performances, bringing out their full emotional thrust without... —
Awards:
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Penguin Guide, Rosette
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Grammy Awards, 50th Awards (2007), Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with Orchestra)
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Berg: Violin Concerto, Three Pieces for Orchestra
RecommendedJames Ehnes (violin), BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis
Ehnes gives a hauntingly elegiac account of Berg’s Violin Concerto...[He] makes it sound like a requiem not only for Manon Gropius, but also for Berg himself...His mellow tone is ideally captured... —
Awards:
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BBC Music Magazine, December 2022, Orchestral Choice
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2022
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Ehnes’s breathtaking virtuosity is subsumed entirely into the musicality of these performances, bubbling to the surface only for passages such as the swashbuckling defiance that concludes the... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, June 2021, Editor's Choice
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Gramophone Awards, 2022, Winner - Instrumental
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Prokofiev: Complete Works for Violin
RecommendedJames Ehnes (violin), with Amy Schwartz Moretti (violin), with Andrew Armstrong (piano)
BBC Philharmonic, Gianandrea Noseda
I have not heard such a beautiful performance of the First Violin Concerto since Itzhak Perlman's 1982 EMI recording, and Ehnes enjoys the advantage of a more natural balance with the orchestra...Ehnes... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, October 2013, Editor's Choice
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Building a Library, January 2023, Recommended Recording - Violin Concerto No. 2
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Given the different methods of tone production required to switch from violin to viola Ehnes, whose first instrument is violin, produces an impressive, seemingly effortless quality of sound... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, December 2024, Editor's Choice
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Special offer. J. S. Bach: The Complete Violin Concertos
RecommendedJames Ehnes (violin), Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra, Joanna G'froerer, Luc Beauséjour, Charles Hamann, Yosuke Kawasaki (violin), Jessica Linnebach, Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra
Ehnes’s playing throughout mixes precision with expressive engagement. —
Awards:
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2025
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With some discs, you can just tell that everything’s going to go like a dream… The freshness and spontaneity of these interpretations is unfaltering, as is the instantaneous rapport and subtle,... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, December 2019, Editor's Choice
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Gramophone Awards, 2020, Finalist - Chamber
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Beethoven: Violin Concerto & Two Romances
James Ehnes (violin)
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrew Manze
The warmth and sweetness of James Ehnes’s tone stand him in very good stead, and his pianissimo playing conveys an admirable sense of mystery. He’s greatly helped by having a sympathetic fellow-violinist... —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, November 2017, Editor's Choice
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