WPR Music new album of the week: ‘Violin Café’

This week’s album of the week comes from Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti, who has been electrifying audiences since she was a teenager.

Benedetti’s other recent recordings include violin concertos by Beethoven and Elgar, plus a concerto written just for her by Wynton Marsalis, so this one is something of a departure for her. Titled “Violin Café,” it recreates the sounds of a continental salon circa 1900 — with a Celtic twist. 

The album includes Benedetti’s performances of classics from the late nineteenth century violin repertoire, accompanied by a small ensemble of accordion, guitar and cello — the kind of four-piece ensemble you might find in a Parisian cafe.

Many of the selections are the kinds of works that might have been heard in such a venue, including music by Pablo de Sarasate and Manuel Ponce, plus the Polonaise de Concert by the Polish violin virtuoso Henryk Wieniawski.

A few of the works for this cafe ensemble range farther afield, from an eighteenth-century dance attributed to Austrian composer Maria Theresia von Paradis to a more recent work by English composer Peter Maxwell Davies: his “Farewell to Stromness,” a 1980 piano interlude that’s become a favorite of guitarists in more recent years.

Rounding out the album is a unique set of collaborations between Benedetti and Scottish folk musician Brìghde Chaimbeul. In recent years, Chaimbeul has helped revive the Scottish smallpipes, a more indoorsy cousin to the highland bagpipes. She’s featured in three Celtic tunes on this album, including the classic “Skye Boat Song.”

It’s a flashy and personal album that crosses genres, eras and regions. Nicola Benedetti’s “Violin Café” is out now on the Decca label.