The new CD featuring the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra has recently appeared on the classical music shelves of the record stores. In October 2011 the German label The Spot Records released the album of Mozart works for violin and orchestra interpreted by young and acclaimed German-Japanese violinist Susanne Yoko Henkel. For the first time, she was not only performing as a soloist, but also as the leader of the excellent Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra.

The soloist is the prize-winner of numerous international competitions, like the Queen Elisabeth in Brussels (Belgium), the Mozart Competition in Salzburg (Austria), the Tibor Varga Competition in Sion (Switzerland), and many others. In 2007, the German Die Welt am Sonntag chose her to be one of Anne Sophie Mutter’s heiresses.

Susanna Yoko Henkel says she has “purposely sought a chamber-music-like, transparent ensemble sound,” and, to this end, she had occupied herself with the musical practice of the era. For example, the bassoon was introduced into the bass section to achieve the balance between different sections of the orchestra, of which Mozart wrote in a letter to his father dated 4 November 1777. Susanna Yoko Henkel also brings back to life an almost forgotten art that used to be completely normal in Mozart’s time: the young violinist plays her own cadenzas, as free improvisations to the Mozart concertos. The complete experience has brought forth a recording that shakes up the existing listening habits and lets Mozart appear in a completely new light: gripping, passionate, fresh and contemporary.

The album features the Third and the Fifth Violin Concerti, along with Rondo in C major and Adagio in E major. Incidentally, this programme was performed at the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Hall before it was committed to disc.

It is the third release with the participation of the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra in the period of past nine months. The Orchestra’s total recording credits include over 130 LPs and CDs since its inception in 1960.