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Engaging, imaginative programming and dazzling, probing artistry are hallmarks of the DUO INGOLFSSON-STOUPEL. Individually, Judith Ingolfsson and Vladimir Stoupel are both seasoned soloists, who have won acclaim for their performances around the globe. Together, they create connections, tell untold stories and take audiences on journeys to the heart of chamber music. A recent world premiere of Paul Arma’s Sonata for Violin and Piano at the Konzerthaus Berlin was hailed as the “sensation of the evening” by Deutschlandfunk - “There was an intensity in the performance that no one on the audience could escape.”
The Duo Ingolfsson-Stoupel regularly participates in renowned concert series and festivals throughout the world, among them Germany’s Brandenburgische Sommerkonzerte, Konzerthaus Berlin, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and Chemnitz’s Villa Esche, Paris’s “Voix Etouffées” and Krakow’s “New Music Festival.” In the United States, the Duo has appeared at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, Brooklyn’s Bargemusic, University of Colorado Boulder, New Mexico’s Music in Corrales and Denver’s Englewood Cultural Arts Center.
For their project “Concert-Centenaire,” the Duo received the official designation “Centenaire” from the French government, an award given to help promote innovative, creative and exceptionally structured concepts centered on the centennial of the First World War. The project explores French music written from the Belle Époque to the end of the WWI, with a special focus on composers whose lives were either heavily impacted or even terminated by this calamitous conflict. The project resulted in a 2016 Accentus Music release of a 3-CD set of scores by Gabriel Fauré, Albéric Magnard, Rudi Stephan and Louis Vierne.
Also active in the recording studios, “En Hommage: Simon Laks” was issued on EDA in 2010, with the Duo’s next CD including works of Stravinsky and Shostakovich for Audite, an album that received a 2013 ICMA nomination. Following the “Concert-Centenaire” album, “Blues, Blanc, Rouge,” with the sonatas of Ravel, Ferroud and Poulenc was issued in 2017, also on Accentus. The Duo’s “La Belle Époque: Works by Eugène Ysaÿe, Théodore Dubois and César Franck,” was released in 2019 on GENUIN, while their most recent albums- violin sonatas of Rathaus, Tiessen and Arma, Rebecca Clarke’s sonatas for viola and violin - were released in 2021 and 2023, respectively, on OEHMS Classics.
Judith Ingolfsson and Vladimir Stoupel are the artistic directors of the festival “Aigues-Vives en Musiques” in southern France, which they co-founded in 2009, as well as the festival “The Last Rose of Summer” in Berlin and the International Bach Academy Eisenach. Since 2017, the artists also curate two concert series: “Duo Plus” at the Mendelssohn-Remise Berlin and “Wednesday at the Institut” at the Institut Français Berlin.
A Russian-born French citizen, Vladimir Stoupel was decorated in 2022 by the French State as Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.
www.ingolfsson-stoupel-duo.com
THE ARTISTS’ THOUGHTS ON THE DUO:
“The Duo Ingolfsson-Stoupel was established with the goal of exploring new paths and directions in the intimate atmosphere of the violin-piano recital, and we have found common interests and passions in the music of the 20th Century.
Our aim is to create and present programs that explore the countless fascinating connections among composers, history and the power of musical communication. Within this context, many projects were born in and since the decade we have worked together. Many of the key composers from the 20th Century are overlooked in concert repertoire, in part because so many of these visionaries had foreshortened careers, falling victim to the First and Second World Wars. To bring these discoveries to light, we develop performance and recording projects, with the aim of restoring these pivotal scores to the stage, so that they will become a permanent component of our regular concert life.
A recent example of such a restorative project was the world premiere performance of Paul Arma’s 1949 Sonata for Violin and Piano. The work is as yet unpublished, but we obtained the manuscript from the composer’s son, and we were thrilled that Deutschlandfunk reviewed our performance as the “sensation of the evening.” It is this kind of experience - bringing a completely unknown work onto the concert stage and successfully communicating its immense strength and value - that makes our work together so rewarding and worthwhile.
We are both experienced, seasoned soloists. Playing alone or performing a concerto is a very different experience from playing and performing as a team. As a duo, we each have the privilege and challenge of constant feedback during rehearsal, feeding mutual inspiration and pushing us to new limits, technically and artistically, neither of us might be able to imagine or achieve alone. This is, essentially, what makes this partnership so special to both of us and what makes the resulting performances so gratifying.”
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REBECCA CLARKE Sonata for Viola & Piano OEHMS Classics: OC 1731 (1923) |
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RATHAUS: Sonata for Violin & Piano, Op. 14 (1925) OEHMS Classics: OC 491 (1921) |
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“LA BELLE ÉPOQUE” Ysaÿe: Poème élégiaque in d, Op. 12 Genuin: 19674 (2019) |
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POULENC: Sonata for Violin & Piano, FP 119 Accentus Music: ACC30436 (2017) |
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“CONCERT-CENTENAIRE, Vol. I” Stephan: Groteske for Violin & Piano Accentus Music: ACC303711 (2016) |
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“CONCERT-CENTENAIRE, Vol. II” Vierne: Sonata in g for Violin & Piano, Op. 23 Accentus Music ACC303712 (2016) |
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“CONCERT-CENTENAIRE, Vol. III" Fauré: Sonata #1 in A for Violin & Piano, Op. 13 Accentus Music: ACC303713 (2016) |
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STRAVINSKY: Divertimento for Violin & Piano Audite: AUD 92.576 (2011) |
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“EN HOMMAGE: SIMON LAKS” Trois pièces de concert pour violon et piano EDA: 31 (2010) |
Karol Rathaus remains long overdue for rediscovery. The Violin Sonata, Op. 14 is typical of him, beautifully proportioned and laid out for the players. The performance is impeccable, with Judith Ingolfsson a strong and idiomatic interpreter and Vladimir Stoupel a splendid accompanist. Vivid sound, too.
GRAMOPHONE
Heavenly Devil’s Trills [headline]
Judith Ingolfsson performed at the highest level with her duo partner, pianist Vladimir Stoupel. They rendered with distinct agogic Beethoven’s Violin Sonata #10 - at once brilliant, nimble, tendentiously soft. Discreet, and with thoughtfully chosen tempos. As a duo, they showed themselves to be most advantageously attuned to each other. She displayed enormous solitsic virtuosity in Tartini’s Sonata in g minor, mastering the work with instinctive certainty, fluency, and ease. Stravinsky’s Divertimento, based on his ballet The Fairy’s Kiss, came across as vigorously kinetic, often boisterous and dance-like.
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG (Germany)
Violinist Judith Ingolfsson and pianist Vladimir Stoupel brought power and purpose to a varied duo program at the National Gallery. Ingolfsson draws a clear, ringing tone from her instrument, the overtones enhanced by pinpoint intonation. When they played together, the sum of these two fine artists produced moments of great imagination.
THE WASHINGTON POST
Judith Ingolfsson and Vladimir Stoupel start their project Concert-Centenaire commemorating World War I with a gripping performance of Rudi Stephan’s Groteske and a noble, sensitive and intense interpretation of Albéric Magnard’s beautiful Violin Sonata.
PIZZICATO
In lovely readings of both sonatas, duo partners Judith Ingolfsson and Vladimir Stoupel provide an ideal setting for entering a style that runs against the grain of Viennese tradition, the 19th-century’s template for sonata form. The journey from tonic to dominant and back to tonic isn’t Fauré’s journey–he revels in the ambiguity of the subdominant–nor does he establish themes and develop them logically. Instead, the piano, given the chief role of creating a shimmering atmosphere, maintains an underpinning of constantly moving notes like rainfall, while the violinist, who is the singer, weaves an equally unbroken lyric line. It’s good to have the two sonatas paired together, especially in such winning performances, so a warm recommendation is extended.
FANFARE
A stellar performance, every moment seems to say precisely what [Ingolfsson] intends, yet her music-making feels spontaneous rather than rigidly controlled. So does Stoupel’s. His piano breathes style, mood, and atmosphere into her breadth of contrasts. The players’ superb balances, articulation, assertiveness at one moment, and lyricism are pristine.
AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE
The experienced duo of Judith Ingolfsson and Vladimir Stoupel play this [Vierne Violin Sonata] with commanding authority.
GRAMOPHONE
Pierre-Octave Ferraud’s Violin Sonata wanders farther afield harmonically and melodically than do either Poulenc’s or Ravel’s Together, Ingolfsson and Stoupel play its first movement briskly, create a sense of gauzy meditation in its second, and explore the finale’s incisive rhythms and bracing harmonies. The thick, rich tone that Ingolfsson produces from her violin’s lower registers sounds both captivating and hauntingly nuanced.
FANFARE
| 6/10/2023 (6pm) | BARGEMUSIC The Barge (Brooklyn, NY) Brahms: “F.A.E.” Sonata (Scherzo) |
| 6/13/2023 (8pm) | INSTITUTE FRANÇAIS BERLIN (Germany) Maier: Violin Sonata |
| 6/15/2023 (8pm) | KONZERTHAUS BERLIN (Germany) Bruch/Huberman: Kol Nidre |
| 7/2/2023 (7:30pm) | ASCENT INTERNATIONAL CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL (OH) Robert J. Werner Recital Hall, College-Conservatory of Music R. Clarke: Violin Sonata in D |
| 10/17/2023 (12:45pm) | ACADEMY ART MUSEUM (Easton, MD) Performing Arts Room Clarke: Violin Sonata in G |
| 11/21/2023 (7:30pm) | FRENCH EMBASSY IN THE UNITED STATES La Maison Française (Washington, DC) Prokofiev: 5 Melodies |
| 1/8/2024 (7:30pm) | MENDELSSOHN REMISE (Berlin, Germany) Clarke: Violin Sonata in G |
| 4/10/2024 (7:30pm) | WILLIAMS COLLEGE SERIES (Williamstown, MA) Chapin Hall Poulenc: Violin Sonata |
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Duo Ingolfsson-Stoupel: introductory video |
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“Concert-Centenaire” – Birth of a Project |
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Franck: Sonata in A for Violin & Piano (mvt. IV: Allegretto poco mosso) |