Violin Sonatas No. 5 in F major, Op. 24 "Spring", No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 12, and No. 9 in A major, Op. 47 "Kreutzer"

Violinist Alena Baeva and pianist Vadym Kholodenko, two of the most highly regarded European musicians based in Luxembourg, are partners both in their personal and artistic lives. Married to each other, they perform together in recitals on major international stages and have released successful albums featuring chamber music repertoire ranging from classical to modern and romantic works. Alena Baeva, born in Kyrgyzstan in 1985, has collaborated with symphony orchestras in New York, London, Tokyo, Zurich, and Cologne. Ukrainian pianist Vadym Kholodenko, now 39, won the gold medal at the prestigious Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2013 and has performed on renowned stages across the United States and Europe, including at Sala Radio in 2016. The two musicians, Alena Baeva and Vadym Kholodenko, maintain a rich recital schedule and have recorded together several albums that have been widely praised by international critics, the most recent being the album released on February 20^th 2026, appeared under the Alpha Classics label.

This year the two artists launched an ambitious recording project that will include the complete cycle of Ludwig van Beethoven's sonatas for violin and piano. The first album in this series features the "Spring" Sonata in F major, Sonata No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 12, and the "Kreutzer" Sonata, works composed between 1797 and 1803. This was a period when Beethoven enjoyed international recognition on Europe's major stages, yet at the same time had begun to experience the first signs of hearing loss. As a result, these works express emotional turbulence, depth, and striking contrasts, oscillating between resignation and hope.

For this disc, made in December 2024 at the Gustav Mahler Cultural Center in Toblach, Italy, Alena Baeva and Vadym Kholodenko used the 2020 Bärenreiter edition. They studied these Beethoven scores in depth, consulting sources from the period in which the works were written in order to shape their interpretative choices, including phrasing, ornamentation, and tempos. The result is an impressive interpretation by the two musicians, who form a cohesive, well-synchronized, dynamic and expressive duo.