Khitruk:Russian Po - ROZSA: Violin Concerto, Op. 24, Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Cello, Op.29

Naxos presents the first disc in its catalogue devoted entirely to the music of Mikl??s R??zsa, in this the centenary year of his birth. Born in Hungary and trained in Leipzig, Mikl??s R??zsa moved to America in 1940, winning a name for himself as a master of the Hollywood epic. During his summer breaks in Italy, however, R??zsa was able to devote himself to his concert works. Combining dazzling virtuosity with Hungarian-tinged lyricism, the Violin Concerto, written for Jascha Heifetz in just six weeks, is one of his finest works and was later adapted for the Billy Wilder film 'The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes'. The angular Sinfonia Concertante (a double concerto for violin and cello) was written originally alongside the score of 'Ben-Hur'. It too, is richly evocative of the composer's Hungarian origins.