The third release for Warner Classics from the award-winning, critically acclaimed Swiss violinist Rachel Kolly d'Alba.
Rachel Kolly D'Alba says: "American Music... seems to discourage any choice between lowbrow and highbrow, so powerfully does it express one key concept - fellowship. All kinds of different music coexisted in the States throughout the twentieth century, and the boundaries between different styles simply vanish when it comes to works such as Gershwin's Porgy and Bess or Bernstein's Serenade. Their origins are secondary: what matters is the message they convey."
Nominated for the ICMA Concerto Award in 2013
Classical CD Choice
"AMERICAN SERENADE: BIZET, BERNSTEIN, WAXMAN Rachel Kolly d’Alba, violin, Orchestre Nationale des Pays de la Loire, John Axelrerod, Warner Classics Three winning and attractive pieces (two of them transcriptions) which make a lively and undemanding programme. Some may be given pause by the surprising number of photographs of the violinist herself, but that’s no doubt an imperative of the art of selling classical music today."
BBC Radio 3 - CD Review
“beautifully played” and “the playing is wonderful”
BBC Music Magazine - March 2013 *****
“... only comparatively rarely does a player emerge who is so musically engaging that one barely notices the technical means involved. Rachel Kolly d'Alba is one of the gifted few who never lapses into interpretative rhetoric or cliché, but lives through the music as though it has taken her over. ... She rides the surging tide of Gershwin's imagination with unforced freshness and spontaneity. ... the stand-out performance here is arguably the Waxman Carmen Fantasie, in which Kolly d'Alba turns every arabesque, flying harmonic and octave flourish into compelling musical matter. ...”
ECHO Découverte - Février 2013
"...Avec un brio exceptionnel, la violiniste virtuose fribourgeoise se joue des difficultés techniques de ces pièces comme si elle avait baigné dans cette musique depuis son enfance. ... elle excelle à mettre en évidence les couleurs et les vibratos, les rythmes endiablés et les confidences, la mélancolie et l'euphorie dont la passion d'amour est toujours porteuse."