Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Frank Almond’s new CD, recorded with pianist William Wolfram, is a fascinating collection of music associated with the 1715 “Lipinski” Stradivari he plays. The CD features Almond’s best recordings. The violin’s original owner, Giuseppe Tartini, is represented by the famous “Devil’s Trill” Sonata, played with period appropriate tone and color. A flashy Caprice by the violin’s one-time owner and namesake, Karol Lipinski (1790-1861), shows Almond as virtuoso. Almond and Wolfram are persuasively insightful in the lyrical, romantic style of Schumann’s Violin Sonata No. 2, and a curiosity, Sonata No. 2 by Julius Röntgen (1855-1932).
