Eurasian Gold Viktoria Kaunzner

• Nikolai Medtner (1880 - 1951): Violin Sonata No. 1 in B Minor, Op. 21:
• 1 Medtner: Violin Sonata No. 1 in B Minor, Op. 21: I. Canzona 07:54
• 2 Medtner: Violin Sonata No. 1 in B Minor, Op. 21: II. Danza 06:06
• 3 Medtner: Violin Sonata No. 1 in B Minor, Op. 21: III. Ditirambo 07:47
• Violin Sonata No. 2 in G Major, Op. 44:
• 4 Medtner: Violin Sonata No. 2 in G Major, Op. 44: I. Introduzione 19:56
• 5 Medtner: Violin Sonata No. 2 in G Major, Op. 44: II. Tema con variazioni 12:05
• 6 Medtner: Violin Sonata No. 2 in G Major, Op. 44: III. Finale rondo 12:51
• Viktoria Kaunzner (b. 1882): Golden Sponge:
• 7 Kaunzner: Golden Sponge 12:19
• Total Runtime 01:18:58

Info for Eurasian Gold

One day, about 100 years ago, a piano student in Berlin had a visit from her brother. She played him fairytale airs on the piano. In raptures of delight at the beauty of this unknown music, the young man asked who wrote them. Full of joy and curiosity about Nikolay Karlovich Medtner, he sent a letter to the composer’s London address. That was a stroke of luck for the unjustly neglected author of those pieces: the young Maharajah of Mysore in India, a passionate pianist, became the old man’s patron. From that day on, Medtner could at last record his own works for the gramophone. In return for this patronage, he dedicated his third piano concerto to his young admirer.

This is a true story and is a living echo of Rachmaninoff’s words to Medtner: “You are in my opinion the greatest composer of our time.” ...

"... As a chivalrous defense of beauty and its meaningfulness, may the music heard here be a kaleidoscope between suffering and love in search of the divine, or a pantheistic fulfillment as the elixir of life. Every beginning - defying Corona - has a magic in it. This album is a tribute to the treasures of Oriental and East Asian cultures ..." (Viktoria Elisabeth Kaunzner)

Viktoria Elisabeth Kaunzner is a worldwide performing "violinist, composer and director of the highest caliber," according to legendary violinist and intellectual Ivry Gitlis, "with wit, beautiful her compositions" (The Strad London). She is an enthusiastic mediator between Western and East Asian music and "makes her walking between cultures a theme" (NMZ).

Viktoria Elisabeth Kaunzner, violin, percussion, artistic direction
Oleg Polianskyi, Klavier
UKOREVV (Universal Korean Organic Ensemble)

Prof. Viktoria Elisabeth Kaunzner
plays the great violin concertos of Bach, Barber, Beethoven, Brahms, Brown, Bruch, Glazunov, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Prokofiev, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi, Wieniawski, etc., each with her own cadenzas and her works "Mysterium" or "Silk Road" for violin and orchestra, e.g. with the Philharmonic Orchestras Jena, Bacau, Chile, Cheongju, Marienbad, EuroArabClassic, Ensemble 20/21 Köln, "Korean Strings". She follows invitations from the Frankfurter Gesellschaft für Neue Musik, Zentrum Paul Klee Bern, Festspiele of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Santander, as Artistic Director at the Eurasian Festival in Bongeunsa Temple Seoul, Bowdoin Music Festival (USA), Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music and Fundaciòn Barenboim-Said. As primaria of Sinus Quartet she premiered very successfully the 13th string quartet of her teacher Krzysztof Meyer at the 1st International Shostakovich Days in Gohrisch. She has performed as a guest concert master at the Zermatt Festival of the Berliner Philharmonics, the Korean Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra Seoul and since 2009 as guest solo violin in Ensemble Garage for New Music Cologne. She plays several world premieres including works dedicted to her. She also dives into baroque music and recorded music by Tartini in historical performance practice, which will soon be released. She cooperates with musicians such as Daniel Barenboim, Constantinos Carydis, Christian Thielemann, Adrian Brendel, Julia Fischer, Peter Ovtcharov, Stefan Temmingh, Florence Sitruk, the Sharoun Ensemble of Berliner Philharmonics or SPARK - the classical band e.g. in the philharmonic halls of Berlin, Odessa, Ljubljana, Damascus, Salle Pleyel Paris, Seoul Arts Center, Konzerthaus Berlin, Flagey Brussels, Bellevue Palace for Federal President Horst Köhler or the Jordanian Queen Nur.

Her vital music abstractively mirrors the world as synesthetic integral of human sensations. Her principle during her compositional process is the law of conservation of energy and she explains it as followed: absorbed energy (= daily impressions: sounds, voices, smells, colors, movements, touches, foods, etc.) - are metamorphosed into a compositional cosmos after a period of incubation into released energy or spontaneously to an improvisation. Following this concept, she reflects the zeitgeist in an original aesthetically demanding musical beauty. She calls her artistic vision "futuristic naturalism senza Artificial Intelligence". As a European pioneer in South Korea, thanks to various kaleidoscopic musical influences, she has an extraordinary wide range of expressions and is inspired by the local traditional instruments (Gugak): Studying their subtle melismatic nuances within the melodic-minimalist line, onomatopoeia and the energetic-rigorous rhythm of this exotic sound language she "makes her altering between the cultures to her topic" (NMZ). The composer receives commissions, etc. from renowned soloist, chamber musicians or Korean airline T' Way. In 2018 she finishes her concert "Jasmine Rice" for violin, Asian instruments, harp, marimba western orchestra and light. About her composition "The Korean drip catcher" on her CD "Wild Bird" (Oehms) performed by duo 47/4 for violin & harp with Anna Viechtl ARG writes: "melisamtic flourishing (...) impressionistic and soaringly lyrical", as well as The Absolute Sound "exquisite" and "unbeatable". In 2016 the CD was awarded with the American Record Guide Critic's Choice.

Analytical-scientific, she devotes herself to the violin music of Medtner. His Sonatas No. 1 & 2 and her piece "Golden Sponge" (Aplysina Aerophoba) for violin, piri, haegeum, sheng, percussion & field recordings ", commissioned by "Ensemble Phase Seoul", with whom she had premiered the piece including light production, will be released on her fourth CD in 2019. In 2014 she gave a recital at Mullae Art Center Seoul with her own works and Korean instruments, music by Violeta Dinescu and an arrangement of Cages 4'33'' for silent violin, cellphone and wise proverbs on cardboard. In 2017 she premiered her work "Bernstein & Co", commissioned by pianist Ulrich Roman Murtfeld and principal cellist Stephan Breith in the former Alsatian house of painter Hélène de Beauvoir in Goxwiller with clarinetist Dörte Sehrer in dialogue with the audience after Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps. As homage to a Korean reunification and the Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang in 2018, she directed and played her fusion music and songwriting "Lucid Dreams" at Milan Mihajlovic's studio. She also creates synergies with painters such as Jürgen Claus, Marijke Vissia or Francesca Cho and improvised among others in Kim Whanki Museum Seoul about his large-scale oil paintings in dot technique. Her compositions are published by Furore Edition Kassel.

Since 2013 she has been given the Ex-David / Midori Guarneri del Gesù violin by Florian Leonhard Fine Violins London with gut strings by Pirastro. In 2017, Sebastian Oberlin built the green violin "SmarAlgda" based on her idea. Currently she is working on an invention. In 2010 she was selected by the Liszt School of Music "Weimar" as youngest European violin and chamber music professor at their branch in South Korea at Kangnam University. Until 2018, she taught students there leading to their successful graduation and also performed with them her compositions and arrangements. At Victory Academy Berlin® she trains musical excellence, e.g. with students from renowned music universities in Los Angeles, London, Paris and Seoul. She follows invitations from major music academies and is in demand as a juror at competitions in Europe and Asia - including the visual arts. Broadcasts at DeutschlandRadio, Bavarian TV and radio, MDR, WDR, HR, ARTE-TV Korea a.o. document the versatility of her as a musician and artist.

Viktoria grows up in the Bavarian Forest and gives her solo debut with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Pilsen at the age of twelve. In 1998 she wins the 1st prize at "Jugend musiziert" violin solo in the federal competition. In 1999 she premieres the violin concerto by Franz E. Spannheimer at Prinzregententheater in Munich, conducted by the composer. After graduating with focus in Latin and mathematics (cycloids and their use in violin making with the „Booth Stradivarius“ as example), she pursued music studies at Music Universities in Karlsruhe, Lucerne, at CNSMD Paris, graduated from Music University "Hanns Eisler" and graduated including a teaching diploma, her master of violin solo studies with Zakhar Bron with honors. She studied composition e.g. with Salvatore Sciarrino at Mozarteum Salzburg, Katja Tchemberdji, music theory with Astrid Bolay and Bach specialist Thomas Daniel as well as media composition at S.E.T. and completed long distance studies in poetry. She was awarded prizes and scholarships, a.o. in the World Federation of International Music Competitions Geneva, the German Foundation Music Life, ZEIT-Bucerius, Erasmus, Yehudi Menuhin-Live Music Now e.V., the Juilliard School New York and the cultural award for music 2014, donated by the Free State of Bavaria. NMZ and The Strad London publish her essays, including her trilingual concert lecture about Beethoven´s violin concerto with a Beatles improvisation as an encore. Since 2008 she has been working on a practical philosophy about violin playing. She is commits herself to Rhapsody in School e.V. and Ocean Care. The legendary violin soloist and intellectual Ivry Gitlis calls her "a living orchestra, violinist, composer and play director - at the highest level".

Booklet for Eurasian Gold