Nigel Kennedy In His First Ever Mozart Concerto Recording and Returning to the Great Beethoven Violin Concerto Fifteen Years On

“Kennedy is the best embodiment of the fact that music is music. To every sphere of his work he brings his same, instantly recognizable style.”
(Gramophone)

Fifteen years after recording the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the late great Klaus Tennstedt (1992), Nigel Kennedy has recorded a new version with the Polish Chamber Orchestra, directing the ensemble from the violin. The coupling is Kennedy’s first ever recording of a Mozart violin concerto: No 4, K218. The CD includes an encore, Kennedy’s own arrangement of Creepin in, by the hard bop legend Horace Silver. The iTunes download will carry an exclusive bonus track, Duke Ellington’s 1927 masterpiece Mood Indigo, also arranged by Kennedy. The young double-bass prodigy Michal Baranski joins Kennedy in both encores.

For over twenty-five years, Nigel Kennedy has been acknowledged as one of the world's leading violinists. With his virtuosic technique, mass appeal, unique talent and natural ability to communicate with his audience, he has

brought fresh perspectives to both classical and contemporary repertoire, winning critical acclaim and huge popularity among a broad-based audience and, by far, remains the best selling international classical violinist of all time.

Nigel Kennedy plays his Guarneri del Gesù "La Fonte", c. 1735 for the concertos and the instrument featured on the encore track and cadenzas* is a customised Violectra 5-stringed electric violin.