Today marks the CD launch of Ignatz Waghalter’s violin repertoire by Naxos, performed and recorded by virtuoso violinist Irmina Trynkos, pianist Giorgi Latsabidze, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Alexander Walker. The CD will feature première recordings of the Violin Concerto in A major, Op.15 and Rhapsody for Violin and Orchestra, Op.9 as well as the Violin Sonata Op.5 and two pieces for violin and piano: Idyll, Op.19b and Geständnis.

To celebrate the launch of the album, Irmina and Giorgi Latsabidze will be performing Waghalter’s Sonata for Violin and Piano in E minor op.82, alongside works by Wieniawski, and sonatas by Elgar and Schumann tonight at a concert at St John’s Smith Square at 7:30 pm. For more information visit their website here.

Ignatz Waghalter was a Polish-German composer born in 1881 in Warsaw, later moving to Berlin. Born to a musical Jewish family, Waghalter was a prodigy pianist from a young age and winner of the Mendlessohn Award at the age of 21. Whilst in Germany, he was well-loved and respected by both musicians and his audiences, premiering three operas during his lifetime and producing a huge collection of works for violin with piano or orchestra. However, with the invasion of the Nazis, like many other composers of the time, Waghalter and his family fled their lives in Berlin and his works became lost and forgotten.

Irmina Trynkos and Giorgi Latsabidze will also be performing at the Philharmonie Berlin on Friday 5^th October. For tickets and more information about the concert, visit here.