New recording by Francisco Fullana and Apollo’s Fire – Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (November 2021)

With a recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Spanish violinist Francisco Fullana and Appollo’s Fire, one of the most renowned baroque orchestras in the U.S., under the direction of Jeanette Sorrell, dedicate themselves to a timeless classic (AVIE, 2021). Especially for the recording and for the occasion of the orchestra’s 30th anniversary, Jeanette Sorrel additionally arranged Vivaldi’s trio sonata La Folia as Concerto Grosso for Fullana, Alan Cho (violin, concertmaster) and the orchestra.

Jeanette Sorrell’s interpretation of the Four Seasons is strongly influenced by her former teacher, the conductor, harpsichordist and organist Gustav Leonhardt. She studied with him in Amsterdam and describes that Leonhardt taught her first and foremost “that the harpsichord should sing, and the music should speak. He taught me how to create an expressive palette of colors and moods. As I stood next to him and listened to him play my pieces, the expressive sound possibilities that I had only half imagined suddenly became crystal clear. I realized that, in order to make something happen in music, you first have to imagine it. And not just halfway. The ideas must be burned and sizzled into your imagination with 100% crystal clarity. Without imagination, there will be no music—because music, especially baroque music, is about ideas.”

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
Francisco Fullana, violin
Apollo’s Fire, Baroque orchestra
Jeannette Sorrell
Release Date: October 2021READ MORE

Francisco Fullana receives Avery Fisher Career Grant 2018 (March 2018)

Spanish violinist Francisco Fullana receives an Avery Fisher Career Grant 2018. This has officially been announced by the Avery Fisher Artist Program’s Chairman, Joseph W. Polisi, Nancy Fisher, and Charles Avery Fisher.

The Career Grant performances on March 22, 6 pm are recorded for live webstream (click here) and radio broadcast by WQXR, New York’s classical music station, with host Elliott Forrest, and will air on Tuesday, April 24 at 9 pm on 105.9 FM and www.wqxr.org.

Since 1976, 149 Career Grants have been awarded (including this year’s grants), and all recipients are currently active musicians. Former Career Grant recipients include pianists Jonathan Biss and Yuja Wang, clarinetist Anthony McGill, violinists James Ehnes and Hilary Hahn an cellist Alisa Weilerstein.

CD release on 2 March: Francisco Fullana’s debut CD “Through the lens of time” (March 2018)

On Friday, 2 March the debut CD by Spanish violinist Francisco Fullana “Through the lens of time” will be released by Orchid Classics.

Find here a website created by the label with all necessary information about the release.

In this video you will get an impression of Isang Yun’s “Königliches Thema”, which Francisco Fullana recorded for the CD.

The Online Streaming platform for classical music IDAGIO is featuring the album, just on time for its release. Click here.

The CD is also added in the Apple Music “A-List”. Click here.

Pre order of debut CD by Francisco Fullana (February 2018)

The debut CD by Spanish violinist Francisco Fullana can be pre ordered on various ways:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Francisco-Birmingham-Symphony-Orchestra-Classics/dp/B0798GMZMS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1518694653&sr=8-1&keywords=francisco+fullana

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/through-the-lens-of-time/1348019371

https://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/classical/products/8404411–through-the-lens-of-time

On Apple Music there are two tracks already available to download / listen to – This means, as a special promotion, if you pre-order the album now you will get them straight away.

Debut CD Francisco Fullana: Release Recital in New York (January 2018)

On 17 March 2018 the debut CD “Through the lens of time“ by violinist Francisco Fullana will be presented in the Rose Studio in Lincoln Centre, New York, on the occasion of its release in March 2018 by Orchid Classics.

At the recital Francisco Fullana will perform together with the renowned Metropolis Ensemble, conducted by Andrew Cyr.

Find more information on the event here.

Violinist Francisco Fullana presents debut recording “Through the lens of time” (January 2018)

Young Spanish violinist Francisco Fullana will release his debut recording in March 2018 (Orchid Classics). Entitled Through the Lens of Time, the recording brings together four modern perspectives reimagining the Baroque tradition: a dialogue that prompts both composers and performers to explore musical giants of the past and place them in their own lives. Francisco Fullana has recorded the CD together with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Carlos Izcaray as well as with pianist David Fung.

The recording begins with Max Richter’s daring reworking of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, which Fullana first performed in 2016 under Venezuelan conductor Carlos Izcaray, who also conducts this debut recording. Fullana comments: “Richter’s The Four Seasons Recomposed awoke a renewed commitment to my musical approach focused on instinct and emotion. It brought me back to my own beginnings, as The Four Seasons was one of the few cassettes that my family would play in the car when I was a young boy. During the performance, Carlos Izcaray and I found that we both shared the same energetic approach to music making. It became clear that we both loved performing this piece too much not to do so again.”

The recording continues with three other works that provide unique takes on the Baroque tradition. The Korean-German Isang Yun’s Königliches Thema pays homage to Bach’s Musical Offering, conflating Baroque and modern styles in one densely rich composition that magically surveys Western musical tradition through the lens of Eastern philosophies. Meanwhile, Schnittke’s Suite in the Old Style presents a combination of different aspects of the Western tradition from Baroque onward, and is heavily influenced by the musical aesthetic of the composers’ own time. As such, the writing represents a sort of time capsule, portraying what “Baroque style” meant to performers
in the 1970s, with exaggerated gestures, verticality, and highlighting the sense of drama to the point of becoming ceremonial. Finally, Salvador Brotons’ Variations on a Baroque Theme hearken to the roots of Fullana’s career, and to his first performance before the public as a nine-year-old prodigy soloing in Mozart’s Turkish A Major Concerto, under Brotons’ baton. The one-time mentor composed his set of variations specifically for this project, completing a circle by basing the work on a popular aria from the zarzuela, Acis Y Galatea, by a third Spaniard, the 18th Century Mallorcan composer Antoni Lliteres.

Find here the trailer of the recording of The Four Seasons Recomposed by Max Richter with the CBSO and Carlos Izcaray in Birmingham.