Soundscapes Tosca Opdam & Alexander Ullman

• Edward Elgar (1857 - 1934): Violin Sonata Op. 82:
• 1 Elgar: Violin Sonata Op. 82: I. Allegro. Risoluto 08:14
• 2 Elgar: Violin Sonata Op. 82: II. Romance. Andante 07:20
• 3 Elgar: Violin Sonata Op. 82: III. Allegro non troppo 08:09
• Florence Price (1887 - 1953): The Deserted Garden:
• 4 Price: The Deserted Garden 02:03
• Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809 - 1847): Violin Sonata in F Major:
• 5 Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Violin Sonata in F Major: I. Allegro vivace 11:27
• 6 Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Violin Sonata in F Major: II. Adagio 06:53
• 7 Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Violin Sonata in F Major: III. Assai vivace 05:39
• Lieder ohne Worte Op. 62:
• 8 Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Lieder ohne Worte Op. 62: I. Andante espressivo 02:59
• Robin de Raaff (b. 1968): Sea Murmurs:
• 9 Raaff: Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2 'North Atlantic Light' (Carnergie Hall Version) 15:53
• 10 Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Sea Murmurs 01:39
• Total Runtime 01:10:16

Info for Soundscapes

Movements in time and sounds in space: While visual art and music share inspirational sources, they often flourish in different realms. This album circles around the idea of bringing (back) visual elements into the musical experience.

The term “soundscapes” refers to acoustic environments created by contingent phenomena. Sounds create scapes, evoking visual experiences. The compositions on this recording are capable of creating landscapes and seascapes in their own right. The three sonatas by Edward Elgar, Felix Mendelssohn, and Robin de Raaff originate environments that allow juxtapositions, pairings with three short pieces by Florence Price, Felix Mendelssohn, and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

"Debut recital by Dutch violinist Tosca Opdam on Challenge Classics. The leit-motiv of this release is ‘soundscape’, the capacity of music to evoke landscapes. About Tosca Opdam: “A violinist whose musical intelligence and expressive clarity make for a distinctive and gorgeous artistry“. (Theaterscene)

Tosca Opdam, violin
Alexander Ullman, piano

Tosca Opdam
Praised for her “enchanting musical personality” (De Volkskrant), Dutch violinist Tosca Opdam has captivated audiences and critics alike with her luminously elegant performances, musical intelligence and a gift for storytelling that surpasses mere virtuosity.

Tosca won First Prize in the 2011 Oskar Back Violin Competition. She subsequently performed at the Royal Concertgebouw and returned for a sold-out debut recital — lauded by The Huffington Post as “at times bold and regal, other times poignant and tender; at all times rendered gorgeously” - and a performance in honor of the re-opening of Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum. Her 2015 performance as part of the Liberation Day Concert on the Amstel River, with King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima in attendance, was broadcast live on Dutch national television. Other live broadcast performances include broadcasts on NPO Radio 4, WQXR (New York), Podium Witteman (Netherlands).

Tosca Opdam made her recital debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in June 2018 performing a program that included the World Premiere of Robin de Raaff’s North Atlantic Light, dedicated to Ms. Opdam and inspired by the Willem de Kooning painting of the same name. In May 2019 she premiered the work’s orchestral version with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Concertgebouw, led by Marc Albrecht.

Recent and upcoming highlights include a performance of Bartok’s violin concerto nr. 2 with the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz under the baton of Annedore Neufeld , recitals at the main hall of De Doelen, Rotterdam, Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, the Hong Kong Generation Next Music Festival, as well as the lead role in a program dedicated to Mendelssohn year 2022, including his concerto for violin, piano and strings orchestra alongside his Octet.

An avid chamber musician and recitalist, Tosca has appeared at the Grachtenfestival (Amsterdam), Delft Chamber Music Festival, Storioni Festival, the Siletz Bay Music Festival (Oregon), YAP festival (Ottawa, and the Festival Musica Classica Joao Pessoa (Brazil).

As an outgrowth of her wider interests, Ms. Opdam often designs programs that connect music to painting, dance, and other art forms. She performed with New York City Ballet and the New York Choreographic Institute at Lincoln Center, and appeared with the Dutch National Ballet. In 2020, she founded the concert series “Miniatures inspired by visual arts and music” (www.miniatures-music-arts.com), combining music and visual arts in close collaboration with museums such as the Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam.

In 2017 the Toscata Foundation was established in Tosca Opdam’s name with the aim of promoting classical music worldwide through education, collaborations with other artistic disciplines, and the championing and commissioning of contemporary composers for performance in the Netherlands and beyond.

She earned her masters of music degree from The Juilliard School and her teachers have included Catherine Cho, Patty Kopec and Sylvia Rosenberg. Tosca Opdam plays a Matteo Gofriller violin from 1700, which is generously on loan to her by a private collector.

Alexander Ullman
Praised for his subtle interpretations and refined technical mastery, British pianist Alexander Ullman has impressed audiences and critics worldwide with his deep understanding of the scores he interprets, his elegant touch and crystalline phrasing. The winner of the 2017 International Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Utrecht, Alexander has appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Budapest Radio Orchestra and Korean Symphony Orchestra, as well as the New Jersey, Fort Worth and Montreal symphonies, working with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Giancarlo Guerrero, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Valentin Uryupin and Markus Stenz. In the 17/18 season he closed the Lille Piano(s) Festival with Orchestre de Picardie under Jean-Claude Casadesus.

He has performed at Wigmore Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall (London), the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Gewandhaus (Leipzig), Kimmel Center (Philadelphia), Kennedy Center (Washington DC), Seoul Arts Center, Shanghai Oriental Arts Center and the NCPA in Beijing, and has been featured in the Nottingham and Oxford international piano series, on BBC Radio 3, France Musique and MDR Klassik. Chamber music highlights include performances at the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove (UK), Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Germany), the Pablo Casals Festival in Prades (France) and La Jolla Summerfest (US) with performers such as the Dover Quartet, violinist Aleksey Semenenko and cellist Michael Petrov.

Future plans include recital tours to China, Japan and North America (April 2020).

Alexander first came to international attention in 2011 after winning the Franz Liszt International Piano Competition in Budapest. From 2014 to 2017 he was represented by Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT). Born in London, in 1991, he studied at the Purcell School, the Curtis Institute and the Royal College of Music, completing his Artist Diploma as the Benjamin Britten Piano Fellow in 2017 (awarded by the Philip Loubser Foundation). His teachers have included William Fong, Leon Fleisher, Ignat Solzhenitsyn, Robert McDonald, Dmitri Alexeev, Ian Jones and Elisso Virsaladze.

Booklet for Soundscapes