Volume 21 Issue 9 - Summer 2016

so than in the early juvenile sonatas written before Mozart turned
11, where the violin is little more than an accompaniment to the
piano, the instruments are on equal terms here, and it’s obvious
that Israelievitch and Petrowska Quilico are of one mind in their
performances.
I’m not sure how many volumes there will be in this series – there
are 19 mature sonatas as well as the 17 juvenile works – but if this first
volume is anything to go by then it will be a series to treasure, and one
that will be a wonderful memorial tribute to a great and much-loved
violinist.
There seems to be a never-ending stream
of emerging top-notch violinists these days,
but every now and then a talent emerges that
simply stops you in your tracks. One such
talent is the 19-year-old Canadian violinist
Kerson Leong, who makes his CD debut with
Bis on the Analekta label with Canadian
pianist Philip Chiu (AN 2 9160).
Leong is by no means an unknown, having
won the Junior First Prize at the 2010 Menuhin Competition in Oslo,
as well as numerous awards here in Canada, but from the very first
bars of the opening track it’s clear that this is a very special violinist
with qualities that lift him from the general crowd and place him in
the stratosphere.
In a blog from the 2012 Menuhin Competition, Nancy Pellegrini
called Leong “a 15-year-old with a 45-year-old’s stage presence.” The
level of musical maturity on display here is simply staggering. Leong
chose to make his first album a series of encore-style pieces, saying
that he thought it would be the ideal way to introduce himself, and
it was a wise decision: the wide range of composers and styles allows
him to display his dazzling talents to the fullest.
From the rich, deep, passionate tone of the Brahms Hungarian
Dances Nos.1 and 17, through Kreisler’s Liebesfreud and Liebesleid, a
Gluck Melodie, the Bartók Romanian Dances, Medtner’s Fairy Tale,
the three Gershwin Preludes, Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise, a simply
ravishing Debussy Clair de lune and Valse, to Wagner’s Albumblatt
and the final Hebrew Melody Op.33 by Joseph Achron, this is magnificent
playing by a young violinist who must surely be on the cusp of a
stellar international career. Chiu’s finely judged accompaniments add
greatly to an outstanding CD.
The Juilliard graduate and Itzhak Perlman
protégée, Francesca dePasquale (francescadepasquale.instantencore.com),
has also
released a self-titled debut album, with pianist
Meng-Chieh Liu. Like Leong, dePasquale has
been around for quite a while – she made her
debut at the age of nine touring Spain – and
for her first album chose works that she feels
are not only dear to her heart but that also show her wide range as an
artist; also like the Leong CD, it’s a choice that works extremely well.
DePasquale has a beautiful tone and impressive technique. There’s
a lovely reading of the Bach Partita No.2 in D Minor for Solo Violin,
and a really strong extended melodic line in Messiaen’s Thème et
Variations. Paola Prestini’s very effective Oceanic Fantasy for Solo
Violin and Electronics, a 2015 commission from dePasquale, incorporates
field recordings of southern Italian songs, although the work is
almost entirely for violin alone, with Bach-like arpeggios and doublestopping
and strong melody lines. The remaining works are the brief
Schumann Intermezzo from the F.A.E. Sonata, Bartók’s Rhapsody
No.1 and a simply gorgeous performance of Marietta’s Lied from
Korngold’s opera Die Tote Stadt; there is a video of the recording
session of the latter, along with audio samples of all the tracks on the
CD, on dePasquale’s website. It’s well worth a visit.
This seems to be a good month for debut albums. First Day is the
solo debut CD of the American cellist Laura Metcalf, accompanied by
pianist Matei Varga in another varied program of works to which both
performers feel deeply connected (Sono Luminus DSL-92201).
Metcalf has extensive experience as both a chamber musician
and soloist, and has a lovely tone and a fine legato. She has been
friends and musical partner with Varga since
2004, and one wonders why a solo CD has
been so long in coming. Still, it was certainly
worth the wait.
Two works on the disc by young American
composers are world premiere recordings:
Caleb Buhrans’ Phantasie and Dan Visconti’s
very brief but joyful Hard-Knock Stomp.
There are also works by José Bragato, Bohuslav
Martinů, Alberto Ginastera and Marin Marais. A student work by a
young George Enescu, the single movement Sonata in F Minor, was
only recently discovered and is still unpublished.
The CD’s title comes from the phrase “paths of the first day” from
the Francis Poulenc song Les Chemins de l’amour, the final track on
the album. Metcalf adds a vocal performance to bring an excellent CD
to a simply lovely close.
This also seems to be a great month for violin
and piano CDs. Interchange is a new release
from the Australian violinist Sarita Kwok (a
longtime resident in the United States) and
pianist Wei-Yi Yang featuring Violin & Piano
Duos of the 20th Century (Genuin GEN 16548).
Janáček’s Sonata is a late work that shows
the influence of the First World War as well
as the composer’s fascination with the
speech patterns of his native Moravia that gave his late music such a
distinctive sound. It’s a difficult, intense, passionate and constantly
changing work, and Kwok captures every element perfectly.
Stravinsky’s Duo Concertante and Prokofiev’s Five Melodies are
given equally sympathetic performances, and there is a stunning sense
of style in Ravel’s Sonata No.2 in G Major, particularly in the Blues
middle movement and the final Perpetuum mobile.
Kwok displays a gorgeous tone, a dazzling technique and a beautiful
focus throughout a terrific CD, and is matched in all respects by Yang’s
outstanding piano playing.
The latest issue from the outstanding
American violinist Rachel Barton Pine
is Testament, a 2CD set of the complete
Bach Sonatas & Partitas for Solo Violin
(Avie 2CD AV2360).
As I’ve noted before, comparative reviews
of these sets are not only extremely difficult,
given the huge number of performer choices
available, but also irrelevant. Probably more
than with any other works in the solo repertoire, recorded performances
of the Sonatas & Partitas are about making an intimate personal
statement. The sheer size and scope of the work means that there will
always be countless variations – small and large – between various
interpretations; all that matters is that each performer’s personal
views and feelings come through, for nothing lays a violinist’s soul
bare more than these astonishing pieces.
Barton Pine makes no attempt to hide the work’s spiritual significance
for her, choosing to record the CD in her church, St. Paul’s
United Church of Christ in Chicago, the place she calls her “emotional
home” for Bach’s music and where she first encountered the violin
and first played Bach in a worship setting at the age of four. There’s
certainly a spirituality to her playing, which is quite superb.
The recording is, she says, a testament to her lifelong relationship
with one of the cornerstones of the violin repertoire and to all who
have inspired and supported her. And what a testament it is.
Canadian violinist Andréa Tyniec has
released a simply stunning recording of the
Six Sonatas for Solo Violin Op.27 by Eugène
Ysaÿe (Really Records REA-CD-5898D).
Tyniec raised the money to fund the recording
through the online fundraising site Indiegogo
and boy, was it worth it!
These astonishing sonatas, apparently
mapped out within the space of 24 hours in July 1923 and published
74 | June 1, 2016 - September 7, 2016 thewholenote.com