Volume 23 Issue 7 - April 2018

with a particularly lovely third movement.
Tim Brady’s Journal (String Quartet No.2) was written in 2013, 33
years after Brady’s previous work in the genre. Inspired simply by “the
opportunity to write music for such amazing players,” it has seven
sections played without pause, the composer likening this to turning
pages in a diary or journal. It’s a tougher work than the other two,
with a cinematic feel to the music at times, but is another very strong
and extremely well-written composition.
The NOSQ’s playing throughout is exemplary in what can be viewed
as definitive performances.
There’s also American string quartet music
from the current century on Richard
Danielpour String Quartets Nos.5-7,
performed by the Delray String Quartet
in the Naxos American Classics Series
(8.559845 naxos.com). The second violinist
in the group is Tomás Costik, whose
Piazzolla and Mozart solo CDs were recently
reviewed here.
String Quartet No.5, “In Search of La vita nuova” (2004) deals with
the composer’s longstanding relationship with Italy. String Quartet
No.6, “Addio” (2009) deals with the string quartet as a metaphor for
family, and how families are eventually broken apart through distance,
time and loss. Both works were written in Northern Italy, and are
about what Danielpour calls “letting go.”
String Quartet No.7, “Psalms of Solace” (2014) is about a “search for
the Divine.” The last movement features a soprano part written specifically
for Hila Plitman, the excellent soloist here.
All three works are very much in a late-20th-century style, strongly
tonal and very accessible, and with some truly beautiful writing and
lovely textures.
The American string quintet Sybarite5 was
formed in 2006, since when it has commissioned,
premiered and promoted over 60
new works. Its new CD Outliers (Bright
Shiny Things BSTC-0121 sybarite5.org)
debuted at No.1 in the Billboard Traditional
Classical Album charts in February.
There was no booklet with the digi-pak
we received and no information on any of
the composers or the 13 works, virtually all from the period 2012 to
2015 and all quite short; the brief information on the cover says that
“each track has been carefully selected to demonstrate a decade of
musical growth and the relationships developed between Sybarite5
and these accomplished American composers.”
Those represented here are: Jessica Meyer; Shawn Conley; Eric
Byers; Dan Visconti; Andy Akiho; Mohammed Fairouz; Kenji Bunch;
Daniel Bernard Roumain; Michi Wiancko; and Lev “Ljova” Zhurbin.
It’s a fascinating selection of solid and appealing compositions with
nothing too challenging aurally.
aware of the operatic vocal nature of the music; Paganini was a close
friend of Rossini, and his concertos make much more sense when
heard with the contemporary Italian opera style in mind.
The Violin Concerto in D Major Op.26 of Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari
is little known and seldom performed. It’s a late work, completed
in 1944 a few years before the composer’s death and written for the
American violinist Guila Bustabo, who revised a subsequent edition
after the original copies were destroyed in an Allied bombing raid.
Dego correctly likens it to “an Italian opera for violin” – albeit opera
from an earlier period than Wolf-Ferrari’s – in which respect it shares
much with the Paganini. A long but very attractive four-movement
work, it has much to recommend it.
Dego is absolutely superb in both works, but particularly in the
lengthy first movement of the Paganini; Rustioni draws excellent
support from the CBSO. The Wolf-Ferrari was recorded live in
Birmingham in March 2017 at its UK premiere, the lengthy applause
well deserved.
Contemporary American composers are
featured on two new CDs.
The husband-and-wife team of violinist
Nicholas DiEugenio and pianist Mimi
Solomon are the performers on Into the
Silence, a tribute to the late Steven Stucky
(who taught at Cornell University in Ithaca,
NY from 1980 to 2014) and the three generations
of composers associated with Cornell
(New Focus Recordings FCR 188 newfocusrecordings.com).
Stucky’s 2013 Sonata for Violin and Piano is surrounded by works
by two of his students: 2013’s . . . in dulcet tones, by Jesse Jones; and
2014’s Plush Earth in Four Pieces by Tonia Ko. Stucky himself studied
at Cornell with Robert Palmer, who founded the doctoral composition
program and taught there from 1943 until 1980. Palmer’s excellent
Sonata for Violin and Piano from 1956 closes the CD.
The Ithaca “sound” is described as “a blend of east coast modernism
with neo-romantic and neo-classical sensibilities, with a rich sense of
colour,” an accurate description of these premiere recordings.
DiEugenio and Solomon were Ithaca neighbours of Stucky, who
introduced them to Palmer’s music and supported this project prior to
his death in 2016.
Notes to Loved Ones features music for strings and piano by Peter
Dayton (Navona Records NV6143 navonarecords.com).
The brief but lovely Fantasy for Viola and Piano is followed by
Morceaux des Noces for String Quartet, another work with a quite
beautiful sound.
The Sonata “Los Dedicatorias” for Violin and Piano reflects
Dayton’s relationship with the art and family of Peruvian painter
thewholenote.com/listening
The Italian violinist Francesca Dego signed
with Deutsche Grammophon in 2012, and
following her debut albums of the Paganini
Caprices and the complete Beethoven Violin
Sonatas the label has released her first
orchestral CD, Paganini/Wolf-Ferrari Violin
Concertos with the City of Birmingham
Symphony Orchestra conducted by Dego’s
husband Daniele Rustioni (DG 4816381). It’s
quite outstanding.
If you’re going to play Paganini’s Concerto No.1 in D Major Op.6
then you need not only impeccable technique so that the sheer difficulty
is never the focus of the performance but also musical sensitivity
and intelligence to make any criticisms about empty virtuosity redundant.
Dego has all these qualities in abundance and is clearly well
Notes to Loved Ones
Peter Dayton
Peter Dayton makes his PARMA
debut on Navona Records with
NOTES TO LOVED ONES, an album
of works for piano and strings.
Johannes Brahms Klavierstuecke
Dirk Herten
"These Brahms recordings have
the grandeur, mystery, emotional
neuroses which are so often
neglected in performances of
Brahms’ Klavierstuecke."
~ Michael Finnissy, composer.
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