Classical Voice North Carolina reviews Georgina Rossi's CD "Mobili"

New Recording Features Composers from Chile: Mobili

By Karen E. Moorman

October 15, 2020 - Raleigh, NC:

Mobili: Music for Viola and Piano from Chile. Georgina Isabel Rossi, viola; Silvie Cheng, piano; New Focus Recordings: FCR268; Duration 69:02; Available through Classical Music Recordings

Georgina Isabel Rossi (viola) and Silvie Cheng (piano) present an album of world premiere recordings featuring Chilean composers Carlos Botto (1923-2004); David Cortéz (b.1985); Rafael Díaz (b.1962); Federico Heinlein (1912-99); and Juan Orrego-Salas) (1919-2019). From the stunning cover art and well-written liner notes, crafted by Rossi, to the music within, this is a treasure-trove for anyone who loves the deep, rich sound of the viola.

Rossi enjoys a career as soloist, performing on stages in North and South America. Born in Santiago, Chile, Rossi began her musical studies with her mother, Penelope Knuth. At age sixteen she was accepted at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan before continuing her viola study in New York. She holds a Master of Music from the Juilliard School and the Bachelor of Music from the Manhattan School of Music. She is a member of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. This is her debut album.

Highly acclaimed pianist Silvie Cheng performs on the world stage and has recorded extensively. She also collaborates with her brother, Bryan Cheng (The Cheng2 Duo). She is a teaching-artist at the Manhattan School of Music's Distance Learning and for the Bridge Arts Ensemble in New York City.

The music includes works by two living composers along with three beloved composers born during the early 20th century. This collection, so beautifully assembled by Rossi, is not in search of a national style. Each composer speaks with a unique voice; yet all five share a love of Chile and the natural world.

The recording begins with two pieces by Díaz, composer and ethnomusicologist. "¿Habrá alguien que sus manos sostenga esta caer?" ("Will There Be Someone Whose Hands Can Sustain This Falling?" (2009), for amplified viola and the only piece for solo viola, makes for a riveting start. Rossi's bold yet refined extended technique illuminates the composer's almost cinematic use of melodies he collected from indigenous people of the Andes Mountains. Díaz counts "Al fondo de mi lejanía se asoma tu casa" ("In the Depths of My Distance Your House Emerges" (2013) as his Op.1 composition, referring to a childhood memory, walking alone to school across a pampa in Patagonia. Applying a pastoral motivic device (M6); he created a tune we can all remember. And accompanied with the piano's watery set of ostinatos, it provides a lovely contrast that reflects the magnificent and diverse geography of Chile.

"Fantasia," Op. 15, for viola and piano (1962), by Botto, did not break new ground but rather synthesized trends of the mid-20th century. He spun colorful lines into conversations between the two instruments; creating expressions through textural density; and he used long pauses that keep the listeners' attention. Botto is remembered for his teaching and academic contributions at the National Conservatory in Santiago.

Heinlein was born in Berlin, raised in Buenos Aires, and became a citizen of Chile, where he spent his career as a writer and composer. His 1985 composition, "Dúo: Do Not Go Gentle," refers to Dylan Thomas' poetry; it's edgy yet beautiful. Cheng's strong playing coupled with Rossi's lush tone summons the emotion of the text.

Originally penned for viola and orchestra, "Tololo" (2011) was premiered by Penelope Knuth and the Orquesta de Cámara de Chile. Imagining images through a telescope at the great observatory, Cortés' work can be described by timbre, texture, pitch, amplitude, and duration; the features of post-modern music. This arrangement, by Miguel Farías, is splendid, but I hope that Rossi will perform this with orchestra in the near future; and I would like to be there for the occasion.

The last composition is Juan Orrego-Salas' Mobili, Op. 63. The only work for viola by the composer, who is also an architect, stands like a towering skyscraper among the others. Rossi writes, "....the impeccable designs of his 1967 Mobili are gleaming in their precision, with melodies that emerge like light through intricate latticework." Deservedly, the album is named and dedicated to his memory. It is an exquisite closing to a remarkable collection.

Rossi plays "El Sampedrino" a song by a romantic Argentinian composer, Carlos Guastavino (1912-2000) (arr. Kim Kashkashian, Robert Levin). A sweet melody, it feels like a sad farewell kiss.

Berkshire Fine Arts features Victoria Bond's recent works

Composer Victoria Bond in Recent Works

Pianist Paul Barnes and Violist Martha Mooke Perform

Victoria Bond brings a distinctive, rich ear to her musical composition in many forms.  A recent commission provided a chance to collaborate with Paul Barnes, a go-to pianist for both Bond and Philip Glass.  Bond's Simaron Kremata is based on a Greek chant and opens with a five note melody which repeats.  Two-four note chords are separated by a whole tone. 

No need to read this, because it is crystal clear as you listen to Barnes articulate the phrase.  Decoration takes several forms, some slow and yearning; others, torrential yet lovely arpeggios.  The music slips in and out of modes which lead to a final lofting of the Jewish prayer for ‘dew,’ the Tal. Tal has an uncanny resemblance to the Greek chant which started the piece. 

Barnes is a daring performer. His singular notes are familiar in the Greek mode and enrich it at the end with with the dew tip to a Jewish mode. At the piano, Barnes brings out the ancient melody and also rips delicately, yes that is possible, in luscious melodic lines. Simplicity and complexity are lofted in arresting moments, often succeeding one another.  

The work was performed to acclaim in Chicago and Nebraska.  Barnes’ performance can be heard as part of a concert given recently at the Leid Center for the Performing Arts in Lincoln.   The Lied offers to lead us and they do.

Bond's Buzz for electric viola and pre-recorded insect songs is featured on a newly released album by violist Martha Mooke. The album also includes contributions from Tony Levin, Pauline Oliveros, and David Rothenberg.  

Buzz dives into new territory, inspired by the time Bond spends in the country.  There, sounds of the woods and fields call to her.  Biologist Rex Cocroft shared a recording of insects in song, playing on plants to speak with one another.  This recording inspired Bond to collaborate with Mooke on electric viola.  Bond says, "I found these songs so expressive that I decided to compose a suite of five duets, pairing the songs with Martha Mooke's electric viola...Martha has at her disposal a huge palette of sounds...which blend in a natural way with those of the insects."  Listen here.

Communication always suggests communicator and the person or group to whom a message is being sent.  With Bond, this connection forms the core of her sound. Simaron Kremata has the feeling of the chant, its modes coming from various cultures. The soothing and suggestive quality of the message shines. 

In Buzz, we feel both nature and a human response through an electric screen.  Bond's operas respond to women in the world of music and politics, and to literature like Gulliver’s Travels which molds words and indelible images into melody.  Bond is an extraordinary artist, always responsding to her world in notes that spiral out to us, the audience. 

In the spring of 2021, Bond will put on her annual Cutting Edge Concert Series at Symphony Space, live in New York.  The Art of the Trombone, and Immigrant Dreams featuring Philip Glass and Bond, with Paul Barnes, will be featured.  Remembering adventuresome concerts past and anticipating new music live is a thrill.  

Meet-the-Artist interview with composer Edward Smaldone

Established in 2012 by writer and blogger Frances Wilson (‘The Cross-Eyed Pianist’), Meet the Artist is a series of interviews in which musicians, conductors and composers discuss aspects of their creative lives, including inspirations, influences, repertoire, performance, recording, significant teachers and more. The interviews offer revealing insights into the musician’s working life and a fascinating glimpse “beyond the notes”.

Who or what were the most significant influences on your musical life and career as a composer?

That would have to be some combination of the Beatles, the Allman Brothers, Blood Sweat and Tears, Beethoven, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Sessions, Carter, Weinberg and Perle. And somewhere along the way Heinrich Schenker (through studies with Carl Schachter) had a powerful impact on the way I hear music (both my own and that of others.) A very powerful influence on my music has also been performance. I have been a professional guitarist, piano player (not a pianist) and singer for 50 years. I also did a lot of choral singing as a student that had a strong impact on my thinking. Everything should sing, rhythm and “feel” are incredibly important features of compelling music.

What have been the greatest challenges/frustrations of your career so far?

Time. There never seems to be enough, and the composer requires so much alone time. I have been extraordinarily fortunate in my musical life, with outstanding mentors, wonderful colleagues of both composers and performers. Trying to find the balance in life of artistic pursuit and the everyday is a challenge. That said, the joys of my family are well worth the time and have a powerful impact on my work as well.

What are the special challenges/pleasures of working on a commissioned piece?

It is a joy to write a commissioned piece, because there is a clear light at the end of the tunnel, shining on a player or ensemble waiting for my score. The challenge is meeting a deadline, but the pleasure of working toward a specific goal with a specific performance is exhilarating.

What are the special challenges/pleasures of working with particular musicians, singers, ensembles or orchestras?

This follows directly on the previous question. Knowing that I am writing for a particular player also inspires me because each player has a specific set of skills and strengths that can be exploited. It is a particular pleasure when we can both shine through the medium of a new piece.

Of which works are you most proud?

I’m proud of them all, the way a parent is proud of each child. Like members of a family, each piece has its own personality. Each piece (hopefully) traces back to the common ground of my imagination, but also expresses itself on its own terms. I would say that I am typically most proud of whatever I have just completed. The act of completion in and of itself marks a moment in the life of a new work, similar to the birth of a new child. Those are special moments. It is also a special pleasure when an older piece (like an older child) “resurfaces” and stands on its own two feet without compromise or excuses.

How would you characterise your compositional language?

My compositional “language” involves a rich chromatic palette. These are just the kinds of sonorities I am drawn to. In working with them, I try very hard to create a musical fabric that captures both the immediacy of a distinctive gesture, and then puts that gesture on a journey that includes elements of tension and resolve; motion and arrival; and a clear sense of large scale architecture (yes, I know these are very traditional features!). My lifelong love and work in areas of improvised music (especially jazz) also brings an element of spontaneity and improvisation to much of my musical materials.

How do you work?

I work best with a deadline. I’m an early adopter of Finale, so I tend to notate my scores as I am composing. I usually start with improvisations and pencil and paper sketches, but very quickly putting thing directly into the computer is the fastest way to manipulate my musical ideas. (And, when I have a deadline, I’m usually composing from 6 AM until at least 10, daily.)

As a musician, what is your definition of success?

I would measure my success by the steady creation, performance and recording of my works. I am exceedingly fortunate to have an academic position (at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, CUNY), so I don’t have to rely on commissions and performances for income. This provides an enviable level of artistic freedom. I feel the most “successful” when I have finished a piece, and it gets a great performance, and it is slated for a recording. It is the satisfaction that work is strong that makes me feel successful. I am especially encouraged by multiple performances and even multiple recordings of several works. It is exciting to attend the 10th performance of something. I am also very gratified by the work of other composers and the performers who I get to work with. The shared camaraderie of musicians, both composers and performers, has been a gift.

What do you consider to be the most important ideas and concepts to impart to aspiring musicians?

Set the bar high and the rest will follow. There are no short cuts. The most potent combination is talent, ambition, and hard work. You need all three. Also, treat every musician and every musical situation with respect: be prepared (actually, be over prepared) and don’t be a jerk. People hate jerks.

What do you feel needs to be done to grow classical music audiences/listeners?

I think that audiences are very open, as long as they are not patronized, as long as the performances are really excellent, and especially when they can make a personal connection with the artists (both the composers and the performers.) People often don’t want to take a chance with music that is unfamiliar, but if the circumstances are right, new music (of any style) can provide a rewarding experience for the audience. Really terrific performances are crucial.

Beyond this, the personal connection between the people on stage and the people in the audience has a powerful impact on the experience. I remember many “Meet the Composer” grants that included a requirement that the composer talk to the audience. I witnessed quite a number of completely dreadful “composer talks.” The composer would struggle to say something meaningful, and end up being incoherent, or vague, or obtuse. And yet, without fail, the mere fact that there was a living composer making an attempt to communicate, was usually enough to bring the audience a little closer, and make them a little more sympathetic to the effort the composer was making with his music. The personal connection made all the difference.

Where would you like to be in 10 years’ time?

In 10 years’ time I’d like to be overseeing lots of performances of the works in my catalogue, along with a steady flow of new performances, pieces, and recordings.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

I’m not so sure it exists. Like a good piece of music, life needs tension and struggle. Maybe happiness is a good balance of good times and tough times.

What is your most treasured possession?

My family. They are not actually a possession, but the joy that comes from the complex interaction of the people in my family, over a long period of time is truly a treasure. I’ve been married for 40 years and have three grown up children and an extended family of dozens of cousins and other relatives.

Records International reviews Jaap Nico Hamburger Piano Concerto

This is a powerful, intense work, largely tonal and thoroughly approachable yet unusual in a number of respects. Hamburger graduated almost simultaneously from medical school and music conservatory, and voluntarily gave up a burgeoning career as concert pianist for decades of distinguished work as a cardiologist. He rebuilt his musical career after moving to Canada from the Netherlands in 2000 as part of his medical career, and has written a considerable amount of music since. He is clearly very conscious of his Jewish heritage, and his first two symphonies, a recording of which we may apparently look forward later this year, treat themes of Holocaust survival and war. This concerto presents something of a conundrum, in that it too plainly has vivid programmatic intent, but presumably by design this seems not to be documented - certainly not in the largely content-free booklet that comes with this disc. In the first movement, the composer’s main influences seem to be Feinberg and Mahler. The piece begins quietly and mournfully, but tension rises with a Mahlerian brass entry. Suddenly a terrifyingly mechanistic passage explodes out of nowhere and disappears just as quickly, with a return to the opening material and the piano's first, sombre solo entry. The second movement begins as an energetic, sarcastic scherzo, very indebted to Shostakovich and Prokofiev, and here the soloist is to the fore from the start. About a third of the way through, sirens attempt to drown out the music which gamely continues, followed by an explosive climax. What follows is a sustained lament, punctuated by shattered shards of sound from the piano and a cello. The side drum ushers in a cadenza, which could have wandered in from one of Feinberg's early sonatas. The orchestra joins in, and quickly the scherzando character of the movement is restored. The ending is snatched off in mid phrase. The last movement, Molto Adagio, is tragic and pained, spare of texture, haunted by a ghostly child's song in violin harmonics, even the piano torn between gentle reflection and sudden spasms of violence; here again one thinks of Shostakovich, or perhaps even more, of Weinberg. The concerto fades out in haunting, fragile, unresolved resignation. The disc contains only this one 22 minute work, and is priced accordingly. Assaff Weisman (piano), Orchestra Métropolitain de Montréal; Vincent de Kort.

Classical Music Sentinel reviews Jaap Nico Hamburger Piano Concerto

JAAP NICO HAMBURGER - Piano Concerto - Assaff Weisman (Piano) - Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal - Vincent de Kort (Conductor) - 615499526230 - Released: August 2020 - Leaf Music LM238

I believe a short introduction to the composer is in order here. Born in Amsterdam, Jaap Nico Hamburger has lived in Canada since August 2000. He studied piano with Youri Egorov amongst others, and graduated from the Royal Sweelinck Conservatorium of Music, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, with a soloist degree in piano. He is the current Composer in Residence with Mécénat Musica in Montréal, Canadian Music Centre Associate Composer, and a former Director of City Opera Vancouver.

His writing, in this work anyway, is very atmospheric and infiltrates your mind in a rather surreptitious fashion. There's a touch of schizophrenia to the music as it moves forward through the use of dissimilar personalities. For example, the slow build-up that opens the first movement is full of Gustav Mahler overtones (notice the horns), but suddenly at the halfway point of this rather short movement, the piano steps in but is overwhelmed by violent and cacophonous outbursts from the orchestra, only to regress to its former atmospheric state. Now the hyperactive second movement on the other hand, sounds like a genetic mutation between Sergei Prokofiev and Galina Ustvolskaya, with a hint of Edgar Varèse (notice the sirens). In contrast to the two Adagio movements that bookend it, this middle movement is highly active and boisterous, and applies technical and expressive pressure on the pianist, all of which is handled with aplomb by Assaff Weisman. The final and longest movement at just over nine minutes, with its anfractuous melodic line from start to finish, is where the music leaves an impression that lingers long after audition.

At first glance this review may seem negative, but only in the sense that this work's individual parts don't always jive with each other. But after repeated auditions, it seems the overall picture wouldn't be complete without these puzzle pieces, and the whole is more than the sum of its parts. It's a rather short disc at just over 22 minutes but you will notice that the price reflects this. Those of you looking to hear something new that isn't completely out in left field should appreciate the music of Jaap Nico Hamburger.

Yael Weiss interviewed on WWFM's "A Tempo"

A Tempo: Pianist's Beethoven Tribute Features Commissions Bridging Conflict, Hope and Peace

By RACHEL KATZ • OCT 1, 2020

As pianist Yael Weiss looked ahead to Beethoven's 250th Anniversary, she asked composers from conflict-torn countries around the world to create works inspired by his piano sonatas and tied together by a motif from the Dona nobis Pacem from his Missa Solemnis. The composers hailed from countries inlcuding Ghana, Iran, and Jordan, to the Philippines, Syria, and Venezuela, and Weiss began touring with her project, called "32 Bright Clouds," in 2018.

When Covid-19 forced the postponement and cancellation of many Beethoven anniversary events, Weiss moved her performances online, and this Saturday (10/3 at 7 pm) on A Tempo, host Rachel Katz will speak with Weiss about the inspiration for the project, the composers and their stories, and audience responses to the performances.

Her latest concert, presented by the Baruch Performing Arts Center, is now streaming on-demand through Oct. 18. A live discussion with Weiss will follow a live stream on Oct. 6.

Listen to the interview at this link.

Insider Interview with pianist Yael Weiss

On October 1 - 18, Baruch Performing Arts Center presents an exclusive performance by the pianist Yael Weiss of music by Beethoven and new works from "32 Bright Clouds". Ms. Weiss commissioned composers from 32 countries of conflict, all inspired by Beethoven's music. Her program at Baruch PAC features a world premiere by Bongani Ndodana-Breen (South Africa), and New York premieres by Saed Haddad (Jordan), Aslıhan Keçebaşoğlu (Turkey) and Adina Izarra (Venezuela). More info online at Baruch.cuny.edu. In this Insider Interview we spoke to Ms. Weiss about her project, “32 Bright Clouds”.

Why did you decide to launch the worldwide commissioning project 32 Bright Clouds?  

Music is a wonderful language for bringing people together and the “32 Bright Clouds” project aims to use the power of music to express our unity, and the global aspiration for peace. The project was born a couple of years ago when I felt that I needed to go beyond the usual concert performances and create an opportunity to share important stories and to bring ideas from around the world to the concert stage. At a time when we are surrounded by an atmosphere of fear, anger, and words and attitudes that create divisiveness, I thought of using my own medium of expression, which is music, to transform that space of alienation and fear into a space where we are curious about the other, where we find excitement and joy in discovering both our own unique qualities and our innate similarities.

How did you come up with the name?

The name “Bright Clouds” is a poetic expression from an old Zen Buddhist text. I like the combination of light and dark colors. And I think of the new pieces as shining a bright light on what may be darker situations and conflicts. The expression “Bright Clouds” is understood to mean “the entire world covered with brightness of wisdom”, an image I find inspiring as I work on the project.

How did you choose the composers and countries you wanted to include in 32 Bright Clouds?

This is one of the parts of the project that I find most fascinating. There are countries of conflict that are very important for me to include in the project, and sometimes those are places that we normally have very little contact with. I usually look to find at least one common link somewhere.  Sometimes a single link gradually leads me to the type of musicians and composers I’m looking for. Of course, there are endless research tools available online today and these often can help point me in the right direction.  But not everything can be done electronically, and on one occasion I ended up taking a long plane trip half way across the world to meet and listen to musicians in a remote location.

What, to you, connects these composers from across the globe to Beethoven’s music? How are they inspired by or how do they incorporate a Beethoven’s piano sonata in their work? 

Beethoven himself lived during a troubled time of transition and manifested in his own life and work a deep belief in liberty and equality, and especially in the creative power of the independent artist to free our minds.   Each composer explores their own connection with these ideals, as reflected in their particular upbringing and culture. Many of the new works include dedications to current events in the composers’ own countries, just as we know Beethoven himself dedicated some of his works to specific events and ideas of the time. 

Each new work offers a fascinating and creative way of joining music that reflects the composer’s own culture and compositional style together with a response to one of Beethoven’s 32 Piano Sonatas. There are endless ways in which this connection is expressed in the different works. Just as Beethoven’s 32 Piano Sonatas are 32 unique works, each exploring new compositional and emotional realms, so does each of the new works for the “32 Bright Clouds” project provide a new contribution to the piano repertoire. The range and variety among the new works is startling, and yet they are all connected by their relationships to Beethoven.

What about the “peace motif” from Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis is so important that you want to make the linchpin of this project?

Each one of the new works carries with it a message of peace. This is achieved by using a single group of notes, a Peace motif, that every composer from around the world includes or responds to in their new composition. This peace motif is taken from Beethoven’s  masterpiece, the Missa Solemnis.  Specifically, this is from the  “Dona Nobis Pacem” section of the work. Most importantly, I chose these notes because Beethoven wrote in the score above them a kind of private message for the performer, he wrote “A call for inner and outer peace” and that is the message of the entire 32 Bright Clouds project.

How does each of them express their concern about the difficulties faced by their countries and countrymen? Could you provide a few examples?

South African composer Bongani Ndodana-Breen’s new work is dedicated to Uyinene Mrwetyana and all victims of femicide in South Africa. As the composer said, gender based violence is one of Africa’s unspoken cultural pandemics.According to official police statistics), a woman is murdered every three hours in the country. To compound this horror, South Africa has one of the highest rates of sexual assault in the world. Uyinene Mrwetyana, the 19 year old university student to whose memory this piano work is dedicated, was one such tragic statistic. The work integrates the “peace motif” with traditional African songs of the Xhosa women. It is titled “Isiko: An African Ritual for Ancestral Intercession”, a ritual used to ask for guidance at such times of suffering and despair.

Jordanian composer Saed takes the “peace motif” from Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, especially the last three notes of it which are where Beethoven uses the words Pacem, Pacem, or Peace, Peace, and he avoids the middle note. This is his way of expressing his feeling that current peace agreements are empty, and so to musically express this emptiness he took out that particular note.

Venezuelan composer Adina Izarra’s piece is called “Arietta for the 150”. It is dedicated to the 150 young men and women who were killed during the 2017 peace demonstrations in Caracas. The work is intimately connected with the second movement, the Arietta, from Beethoven’s final Sonata Op.111.  It is the expression of calm and peace in this movement that the composer brings forward in her own work, portraying a dream of a peaceful Venezuela, as well as joyful sections that include her response to the “peace motif” from Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis.

Lucid Culture previews Christopher Houlihan's "Vierne @ 150" Concert and Festival

Christopher Houlihan Salutes the 150th Birthday of an Underservedly Obscure Organ Music Icon

In the classical organ music demimonde, Louis Vierne is an iconic presence. The epic grandeur and frequent venom of his organ symphonies have seldom been matched, let alone surpassed. His life was plagued by struggle and tragedy. Born legally blind, he became an awardwinning violinist while still in his teens before switching to the king of the instruments. His wife left him for his best friend. He lost family members in World War I. After the war, he was forced to go on concert tour to raise money to repair the organ at Notre Dame in Paris, where he would remain until his death. And on his final day there, Vierne collapsed in the console and fell onto the low bass pedal. The organ rumbled louder and louder until someone finally went in to check on him and found him there dead.

Yet outside of the insular pipe organ world, Vierne is little-known…and Christopher Houlihan is determined to change that. This blog was unfortunately not there when he played the entire Vierne symphonic cycle in New York back in June of 2012, but fortunately much of that was recorded, and you can catch not only some of the highlights but also a lot of fascinating background when the organist celebrates the 150th anniversary of the troubled French composer’s birth with a series of webcasts starting this October 5.

There’s plenty of material for both general audiences and hardcore organ geeks. On October 5 at 7 PM, Houlihan interviews Phillip Truckenbrod, whose recent memoir Organists and Me covers a half century of managing some of the loudest musicians on the planet.

The next evening, October 6, Houlihan chats with the brilliant Notre Dame organist Olivier Latry about the horrific fire and ongoing reconstruction of the organ there. On October 7, Houlihan offers a demonstration of the famous Trinity College organ in Hartford Connecticut, and on October 8, he plays a deliciously dynamic program there which includes Vierne’s majestic Symphony No. 4 as well as shorter pieces ranging from his celestial Clair de Lune to the sparkling, playfully evocative Naïades. Other webcasts in the works include concert footage from Houlihan’s landmark 2012 Vierne performances as well as an interview with Vierne biographer Rollin Smith, the first American to play the Vierne symphonic cycle.

Insider Interview with violinist Jerilyn Jorgensen and pianist Cullan Bryant

Performed on period instruments of the Frederick Collection, violinist Jerilyn Jorgensen and pianist Cullan Bryant play Beethoven's Complete Piano and Violin Sonatas on Albany Records, (Troy 1825-28, released July 2020). In this Insider Interview we spoke to Ms. Jorgensen and Mr. Bryant about this project, as well as their approach to historical performance practice.

Classical Music Communications: What was your introduction to playing on period instruments and historically informed performance? What about the instruments and performance practices attracts you?

Jeri Jorgensen: I had experimented with Baroque performance practice but my ear fought the very low pitch required to play authentically in that style.  I loved the idea of it, but decided historical performance was not for me. And then I went to a concert and heard Andrew Manze, noted British period violinist, perform a Mozart concerto with a small classical orchestra. It was like a light suddenly went on, and everything fell into place in my mind. Everything about the performance entranced me: the intimacy of the sound, the easily sculpted articulations, the variety and character of the music which came so naturally from these ever-so-slightly different-looking instruments.  I borrowed a modern copy of a classical violin and original bow,  and was astonished at what the instrument suggested to me about how to play the music.  It was like a time machine through which I could glimpse the composer's intentions. I don't know if you've seen those photoshopped renditions of statuary - the marble busts or bronze statues are transformed into realistic pictures that look like photographs of attractive, real people. The person that is so "classically" depicted comes to life with color and motion and personality. It was every bit as startling a transformation as that.

Cullan Bryant: I had heard about the Frederick Collection of Historic Pianos from a pianist friend, who took me to see them.  This undiscovered gem, ensconced in a former library in an unassuming town near Boston, is the greatest collection of early European pianos in the United States.  I spent days there, moving from piano to piano, playing snippets of different works on each instrument, utterly immersed in a new, or should I say old, world.  Because of standard manufacturing practices, modern pianos have a homogeneity of sound.  Starting in the late 1700s, piano construction was in an intensely experimental phase and the sound of the instruments differed wildly, depending on both the maker and geographical location.   I was attracted especially to the very early examples and played my first recital there on the Katholnig, which we used extensively in the recordings.  I also played an all-Chopin recital on the Bosendorfer, which we used for the 10th Sonata, but I kept returning to the pianos that were most unlike modern pianos in sound and operation.

CMC: What are some of the biggest differences between playing Beethoven on period instruments and modern ones?

JJ:  The biggest difference is the total lack of necessity for the violin to try to project over the piano.  The differences in the construction of the piano make the sound more incisive and less sustained, so that it is not really possible for the sound of the piano to cover the violin.  There are no balance issues.  So the attention can go to nuance and articulation and the intimacy of expression of chamber music rather than power.  The other variable is the tuning. Because of our experience with a range of original instruments at the Frederick Collection, we like to play Sonatas 1-8 at A430 in a Bach temperament, and Sonatas 9 and 10 at A440 equal temperament.  But it really depends on the instrument where we are playing, and what that particular piano and the piano technician happen to prefer.  So that is something that is continuously unpredictable, and I have had to learn to adjust on the spot.

CB: The touch of the early piano is very light. Control of the voicing and phrase must come from keeping the weight of the hand and arm out of the keys.   Often I have to use a completely different fingering from what I use in the same passage on a modern piano.  One of the surprises when we play on tour is the location of the pedals - before the pedal was standardized to its present position on the ground, it might be a knee lever. Certain things are effortless - it is amazing, for example, the way a sforzando in the bass will pop out of the texture. While reproduction instruments are relatively stable in pitch and action, all of the instruments used on the recording have whole or partially original actions, and 200-year old mechanical objects can be creaky, noisy, and sometimes cranky.  Each instrument has its own personality, and it is important to work with what is presented and find the beauty of sound that is individual to each piano.

CMC: Tell us about the violin you’re playing on this recording. How is it particularly suited to the music of this time period, and specifically to these particular Beethoven works?

JJ: I'm playing a violin by Andrea Carolus Leeb, Viennese, from 1797.  This violin was new when Beethoven was writing his first set of violin sonatas, his Op. 12.  It was just coming out of the shop in the city where he lived.  The instrument retains its original lower-tension neck set, which enables the use of use gut strings.  Their sound is appropriate to the period and compliments the sound of the piano. The biggest difference, however, is in the bow, which was undergoing as rapid a transformation as was the piano during this time period.  The "transitional" bows that I use, so called because they were an intermediate step between the Baroque and modern bow, are a wonder of strokes and nuance.  They suggest a wide range of expression and transparency that spectacularly inform the interpretation.

CMC: Cullan, tell us about the instruments you used on the recording. Why did you use more than one piano for this cycle of sonatas?

CB:  We went through the collection and tried several different pianos with each of the sonatas.  It was a fascinating process.  The choices are all based on the character of the music, not on any pre-conceived historical notion, although we ended up roughly in chronological order. Only Sonata No. 8 is played on a piano used for earlier works- in order to highlight the music's crisply effervescent character.  Interestingly, the pianos we chose as matching Sonatas 9 and 10 were both built in 1830, three years after Beethoven's death and decades after the composition of these sonatas. I can only think that Beethoven, whose hearing was starting to fail as early as 1802, might have imagined the sound of more powerful and singing instruments as he conceptualized these works.

CMC: The world celebrates Beethoven’s 250th birthday this year. Having now completed a major cycle from the composer’s works, what would you say makes his music so timeless?

CB:  The reflection of humanity in Beethoven's music is universal. He wrote music of transformative truth, love, and beauty.  He offers us his humor, pain, and struggle. These emotions and conditions transcend time and place.

CMC: Because this is a “Beethoven Year,” there is a plethora of new recordings of his music available. What distinguishes your recording from others?

JJ:  Our recording is to my knowledge the only widely-available set recorded by Americans on instruments in an American collection.  We were inspired to re-imagine the interpretations of these works because of our access to this amazing resource- the Frederick Collection of Historic Pianos.

Stick & Bow Insider Interview

On September 25-30, Baruch Performing Arts Center presents an exclusive performance by the acclaimed ensemble Stick & Bow. The Montreal-based marimba and cello duo takes the listener on a musical tour of Latin America, performing works by Astor Piazzolla, Hector Villa Lobos, Julio De Caro, Arturo Marquez, and more. More info online at Baruch.cuny.edu

Classical Music Communications: How did you meet?

Stick & Bow: We met at McGill university, somewhere in the middle of our Masters degree.

We don’t recall exactly when or how we met… We just remember doing a recording of a beautiful piece by Luna Pearl Woolf called Suspense (a silent movie to which she wrote music) and already being friends. We had a lot of mutual friends.

CMC: When and how did the notion of playing together as a professional duo under the name Stick & Bow come about? What made you believe that this combination would work in the long run?

S&B: We first played together in the piece I’ve mentioned above. Then, Krystina commissioned a new theatrical work for violin, cello and percussion to Luna Pearl Woolf which was our first big musical collaboration. We workshopped it at The Banff Center for the Arts, alongside the composer and a stage director, and we decided to present it for the first time at the end of that artistic residency. But the piece was too short for a full concert (40 minutes) so we played the only piece we knew that existed for marimba and cello, Mariel by Osvaldo Golijov, a stunning work.

The feedback from both these works was always very positive, so we decided to explore further.

Also, Krystina lived in France and Juan Sebastian in Canada for 7 years. And for this part of the answer, we can’t hide that we are a couple! We had to be creative and find ways to see each other without having the budget to pay for plane tickets every time. So we found shows and performing opportunities that would permit us to play together.

In March 2018, the Biennale Musique en Scène de Lyon, with whom Krystina had already collaborated in 2016, commissioned us a new show! It was a big motivation to prepare a full length program for marimba and cello. In that same period, we also played 10 shows in France and Italy (March 2018) and the feedback was always very positive!

We then organized our own show in May 2018 in Montreal and that is where we met Barbara Scales from the agency Latitude45arts. From that point on, the duo Stick&Bow has become our most important artistic project, at our pleasant surprise. We still have many projects separately, but this is the core of our work.

For the “long run”, I think the fact that almost no repertoire exists for this combination is a huge motivation. We work with living composers to try and build/create a body of works and we constantly arrange new works! The program for Isla\Baruch is a mix of exactly that! Mainly our arrangements of works we love and some commissions. It’s a very hard but rewarding process to arrange music. We have discovered our instruments in such a different, new, refreshing and surprising way thanks to that type of work.

CMC: Is there already a canon of works for marimba and cello? Or do you have to arrange most of the music you play? Do you have a systematic way of working out these arrangements?

S&B: No, there is hardly any music for our duo, so yes we arrange and commission most of our works. Arranging is a complex thing and we don’t have one way to go about it. If we need to learn the music by ear (more in folk-pop music) it’ll usually be Juan Sebastian that’ll have a first go at the structure and then we’ll work together. When we work from scores, it’s usually the other way around, where Krystina does a first draft and then we work together.

The fact that we are only two is a huge advantage for arranging since we can really test and try out as we go! We couldn’t do that if there were six of us for example!

CMC: Tell me about your concert program at Baruch Performing Arts Center, which takes the listener on a tour of Latin America and Spain. How are the pieces you chose for each country representative of that place? 

S&B: This is a very special program for us. I'm from Quebec and Juan is from Argentina and this program brings us to explore all the cultures that separate our own and unite them.

Our plans, for the 2022-23 season, already included a Latin-American program and thanks to Baruch, we simply started digging in the repertoire ahead of time! There is such a rich and diverse cultural heritage from Latin America and it’s really a pleasure to explore some of it!

We have chosen, for this specific program, to showcase works from across the continent inspired by folk traditions. Whether it’s a Bambuco from Colombia, a danzon from Mexico (a rhythm originally from Cuba) or a chacarera from Chile, we wanted to showcase the variety of styles. We’ve also decided to present some of the works we love the most from different regions such as Gracias a la Vida by the Chilean composer Violeta Parra, such a powerful piece that resonates for both of us.

CMC: What special challenges do you face during the pandemic? What other projects have you initiated since the pandemic began? 

S&B: Before the pandemic, we had 2 professional videos. We now have 14!... and there’s a bunch more coming out.

One of the major outcomes of the pandemic is definitely going digital. And to be honest, it’s not simple. It’s a challenge to play for a virtual crowd. There’s no feedback, no human connection and it doesn’t feel perfectly in line. It also takes a lot more time and logistics behind every contract that was planned, which is another big challenge! We don’t say this to complain, we know we are super lucky to be playing and making videos, it’s simply the reality behind it. 

Projects are mainly up in the air for the moment because of the situation. We are creating a new multidisciplinary show this upcoming November that will be touring in France in 2022 and we have a new show around David Bowie’s music in December. After that, we must admit that the year 2021 will be complex and we’ll have to be patient since things will have to move slowly for some time! We are really hoping to be able to present a new Tango Nuevo program alongside Gustavo Beytelmann (Piazzolla’s pianist!) for Piazzolla's 100th anniversary in 2021, but we will see how things move along before we get our hopes up!

Symphony Magazine highlights women conductors, ft. Victoria Bond

“Conductor and composer Victoria Bond, the first woman to be awarded a doctorate in orchestral conducting from the Juilliard School, in 1977, says the only real female role models when she was doing postgraduate work at Juilliard were Eve Queler and Sarah Caldwell. Bond got her professional conducting start as music director of the Pittsburgh Youth Orchestra in 1977. “I was told over and over when somebody came backstage to shake my hand or congratulate me after a performance, ‘Oh, you’re so small. We thought you were tall,’ ” Bond recalls. “On that podium, you look tall no matter what,” Bond says. “Let’s talk about men who are iconic conductors, like Herbert von Karajan, like Leonard Bernstein, like Seiji Ozawa. They’re all short men. I didn’t realize that at first about von Karajan because in his posters he looked about seven feet tall. When Yannick Nézet-Séguin gets up on stage with these enormous opera singers, it’s a comical picture, but it’s not your size that determines your strength.” She says in Pittsburgh back in the 1970s, “people did not feel obliged to be politically correct. I’ve kept all of those articles, those demeaning, patronizing articles. I think they will be of great historical interest at some point when people say, ‘Women were always treated equally well.’ It ain’t necessarily so.”

Read the entire article here.

The Rehearsal Studio reviews Orli Shaham on PacSym Summer Replay

A Mozart “Bonus” from Pianist Orli Shaham

By: STEPHEN SMOLIAR

Not long after the imposition of shelter-in-place, I discovered that I was receiving regular press releases from Classical Music Communications involving the activities of pianist Orli Shaham. These seemed to be part of a MidWeek Mozart series that was providing audio previews of Shaham’s current project to record the piano sonatas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Every now and then, however, video content would be introduced; and, at the beginning of April, I discussed a video of a recital presented by students in the Conservatory of Music division of the Colburn School in Los Angeles. Shaham not only coached the students but also contributed her piano work to their chamber music selections. A couple of weeks later I reported on Shaham participating in Music Never Sleeps NYC with her husband, conductor David Robertson. Their contribution to this 24-hour marathon was a performance of Steve Reich’s “Clapping Music,” subsequently posted as a YouTube file.

As of last night, there is now a video account of Shaham playing Mozart. This is not a sonata recital. Rather, it is a recording of a performance by the Pacific Symphony, based in Orange County, of Mozart’s K. 453 concerto in G major. Shaham is the soloist under the baton of Carl St. Clair. The performance took place on May 20, 2017 in the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. The Web page for this concert excerpt will be available for viewing through September 26.

We are used to thinking of Mozart’s piano concertos as platforms from which Mozart could show off his many talents. However, after Mozart moved to Vienna, he realized that taking on students would provide a useful revenue source; and one of those students, Barbara Ployer, was the soloist when K. 453 was performed. Most likely, Mozart conducted; and, at that same concert, the two of them played his K. 448 sonata for two pianos in D major. There is no doubt that Mozart had more than his fair share of the spotlight at this particular performance.

When we listen to a Mozart piano concerto, we tend to focus on the many technical hoops through which the soloist is obliged to jump. While there is no doubt that technical display was a primary “show-off” factor in any of those concertos, there are many other factors that contribute to the overall rhetorical tone. The selection of the key is one of those factors, and it is worth noting how few of those concertos are written in a minor key. Having now had a generous share of opportunities to listen to these concertos in performance, I have to say that one of the strongest rhetorical indicators is instrumentation: What instruments contribute to the ensemble beyond the “usual suspects” in the string section; and what are their respective dispositions?

The instrumentation is relatively familiar where K. 453 is concerned. There are pairs of oboes, bassoons, and horns, along with a single flute. The very sonorities of these instruments embody any number of rhetorical connotations, and there was much to admire in how St. Clair scaled down his string section to allow those connotations to flourish. My only regret was that the video crew tended to undermine those connotations due to a failure to plan in advance for which winds would be playing when. Indeed, while St. Clair and Shaham collaborated brilliantly in the tightly-knit fabric of this concerto, the video direction dropped too many stitches for that fabric to cohere sufficiently. As a result, one could probably come away with a better appreciation of the relationship between soloist and conductor by concentrating only on the audio.

On the other hand, there was much to enjoy when the camera turned to Shaham. When I watched her working with the Colburn students, I was particularly impressed by the physical cues she delivered to pull her students together as a coordinated team. Where K. 453 was concerned, those cues had less to do with teamwork with the orchestra and more as signs of when Mozart probably took particular delight in several of the inventive passages in his score. There was a prevailing sense that personality signified as much as technical skill, leaving me to wonder whether or not such personal traits ever figured in how Mozart had coached Ployer for her performance of this concerto.

The video also included Shaham’s encore following the conclusion of the concerto. She decided to go with Alexander Siloti’s richly pianistic arrangement of BWV 855a, the prelude from the E minor prelude-fugue coupling in the first book of The Well-Tempered Clavier (BWV 855). Siloti transposed the key to B minor and introduced a generous share of highly pianistic techniques that would not have been suitable for any instrument at Bach’s disposal. As a result, what began as yet another vehicle for Bach’s approach to pedagogy was transformed into a “meditation” couched in the rich rhetorical techniques of the late nineteenth century. (For the record, Siloti first performed this arrangement in 1912, but it is clear where his heart was!)

Classical Classroom, Episode 213: Orli Shaham Talks Piano (Man)

How and why the piano came to be, what it is, and how to learn it.

TODD HULSLANDER | POSTED ONJULY 20, 2020

The piano. A seemingly normal instrument. But where did it come from, and how did it get here? Is it a percussion or a string instrument? Is it safe for young people, or will it influence your child to become interested in (gasp!) music, like it did one Orli Shaham? In this episode, Shaham describes how she was helplessly lured by the piano, as well as how this instrument wound up in peoples’ homes. She also talks about its repertoire, and how your child can start playing. Listen at your own peril at this link.

Insider Interview with violist Georgina Rossi

In the fall of 2020, the violist Georgina Rossi releases her debut recording, “MOBILI: Music for Viola and Piano from Chile” on New Focus Recordings. In this Insider Interview we spoke to Ms. Rossi and pianist Silvie Cheng about this project, as well as the inspiration behind the recording.

Classical Music Communications: How did the idea to make a CD highlighting the works of Chilean composers come to you?

Georgina Rossi: Compiling and recording these specific pieces was something I’d pondered for a long while—I’ve known the older ones for so many years and was so excited about the newest. In 2018, what made me drop everything else and decide to pursue the project full-time was that 2019 marked Orrego-Salas’s one hundredth birthday, and I knew I wanted to do something to honor him.  At that point I’d been offering premieres in the US and abroad of Díaz’s and Cortés’s work, and found I really loved sharing these pieces with people. I loved that people seemed to connect with them and appreciate them so much no matter where I played. A cool thing happened once I’d decided to move forward with the established repertoire. Rafael Díaz, when he heard the news, e-mailed me another of his pieces for viola (In the Depths of My Distance for viola and piano) which I didn’t know existed and was so beautiful it completely blew me away. I had to add it to the list. I’m so thrilled to include that last-minute addition.

CMC: Do you think there’s a common thread amongst the works you’ve recorded which might be classified as a “Chilean sound”? If so, why?

GR: I’ve thought about this so much, and it’s really interesting to try to answer that question. I think the answer is mostly no (with a little bit of yes). Chilean classical music composition bloomed late, so it is extremely international and very modern, with deep European roots. I would say though, that there is an element to all of the pieces that points to an affection for a kind of magical realism so recognizable of Latin American art and culture. Chile has managed to hold on to some isolation amidst the globalized world thanks to the Andean range and its unique geography. The connection to a seeming otherworldly environment is an important part of the works by Díaz and Cortés especially: Díaz focuses on spirituality, nature, and the practices of indigenous peoples, and Cortés based his piece on the territory of Coquimbo and the world of astronomy available to anyone who visits there, just South of the Atacama Desert.

CMC: Which composers featured on the album have you had the opportunity to work with in the past?

GR: Both Díaz and Cortés, though all our communication has been long distance. I performed Cortés’s piece, Tololo, in several places, but most excitingly in Mendoza, Argentina, in its original form alongside string orchestra. Díaz had heard my live recordings of his work for amplified solo viola, the earlier of the two, performed in Holland at the Viola Festival and in New York when Joel Sachs did the Focus! on Latin America, and he has always been gracious and flattering, never once making any requests or inputting his opinion, which I find so amazing in a composer. He knows in his bones how the piece is larger than himself and doesn’t try to control anything – this philosophy is so reflective of his music, which grapples with seeking authenticity and connectivity to nature and that which is larger than ourselves. (That said, I would always welcome any suggestions and guidance from him, but it’s just not who he is.) The only time he agreed to input his specific opinions on anything other than compliments was when I was going back and forth with the engineer, trying make decisions to nail the sound effects Rafael describes in the score: he requests subtle electronic amplification with a touch of reverb, in attempt to evoke the sound of an echoing lone human voice on mountainous territory. It was great to get to ask him exactly what he meant with the digital work and the panning and what not, avoiding some of the guesswork for the engineer. As my wonderful engineer Ryan Streber said, that kind of work quickly becomes very compositional, so it’s a luxury to have the composer weigh in directly.

CMC: Tell us about your musical partnership with the pianist Silvie Cheng. How did you connect with each other, and what do you like about playing with her?

GR: Silvie and I were friends in college, while I was getting my bachelor’s at Manhattan School of Music. We ended up living together and were roommates for three whole years, right on LaSalle and Broadway. We’ve been close for what seems like forever, and I went straight to her when I knew I was going to move forward with this record. It was a privilege to work together and I always learn so much from playing together. She has a fabulous duo of her own alongside her brother, so I always feel lucky to steal her away for periods of time. Playing with her is a delight. Aside from being a masterful pianist and brilliant musical thinker, she brings to the rehearsal room (and to the stage) a serenity and joy that is contagious and reflective of her rock-solid values around music-making: the heart and joy, the sharing with others.

CMC: (to Silvie Cheng) What did you think when Georgina approached you about making this CD with her? Did you know any of the works or the composers, going into the project?

Silvie Cheng: I was excited and deeply honored when Georgina asked me to be her collaborative partner in the making of her debut album. The personal concept of the album struck me as universally relatable—like Georgina, I was born and raised in a country other than America, and I have experienced the same desire to connect more profoundly to one's cultural identity through playing the music from one's home country. Georgina and I had played some of Carlos Guastavino's works together while studying at the Manhattan School of Music, but otherwise I was delving into the language of most of these composers for the very first time.

CMC: (to Silvie Cheng) What challenges did you face in making this recording?

Silvie Cheng: When making an album of mostly world-premiere recordings, one inherently accepts the challenge of not being able to reference others while learning the pieces. This can feel daunting at first, as we're accustomed in the classical music world to not only know what a piece basically sounds like before approaching it ourselves, but also be able to listen to a plethora of recordings with varying ideas. Ultimately though, this gave us the freedom to explore authentic and genuine interpretations of these works through our own voices. In a way, Georgina and I are the first archaeologists of these scores to document our discoveries, and with the release of this album, now there IS a reference recording of these works for future generations!

We had been scheduled to tour in Chile the month before recording, but it was postponed due to the civil unrest there in the fall of 2019. We had been so looking forward to giving an album release tour instead this fall, but now COVID...seems like our biggest challenge is being able to bring and present this music on home soil!

CMC: What was the experience of recording and releasing an album during the COVID-19 pandemic like? Do you think the process changed how you think about these pieces, or had other effects on the album?

GR: Our recording dates were scheduled for three half-day sessions in December, so, just a few weeks before COVID entered our consciousness. Very lucky timing, because the phase that followed (mastering, producing, working with the engineer, working on liner notes, working with the label) can all be done remotely. I’ve been doing all of that work from my apartment in Hamilton Heights. I’ve thought to myself multiple times how glad I am that I didn’t postpone the recording date and went for it in the nick of time, because being able to focus on this work has been such an anchor now that there are no concerts and virtually no performing opportunities.

It affected how I think about the pieces in that my view of this work as important work has been so highlighted in my mind. Making recordings of these pieces was always a valuable pursuit, but now that we are even more disconnected than we were from each other, this type of artistic pursuit feels absolutely vital and it is a precious privilege to focus on it. A global crisis like this one is such a reminder of the value of art in society.

CMC: You are also a visual artist and created all of the album artwork yourself, including a series of 20 works on paper that are incorporated into the CD booklet and cover. What connections have you found between your visual art and music performances - how do they inform each other?

GR: In general, my musical practice and artwork don’t inform each other. I studied art from a young age in Chile with a Chilean painter who is to this day such a guiding light for me. Art was always this separate thing that I could fall into completely, without worrying about making mistakes or doing it wrong, so I’ve always enjoyed keeping it in a separate mental place. I’m not really all that interested in crossover projects, so it’s funny that Mobili is one in some way. But, crucially, I’m not trying to interpret any of the pieces through visual work. Those efforts usually come through poorly and I’m not interested in that intellectually or aesthetically. What I wanted to do was make a pleasing art-object in the production of this CD and LP. I really love reading through liner notes and exploring an album in its entirety while I listen to music. It’s lovely to learn about the pieces and about the people behind them, and when someone puts in the care to make that experience special by thinking through the visual work and design, it’s meaningful.

I allowed myself to approach the series of works I created for the Mobili album with more of a mindset on design over art --- much less pressure that way, and easier to make sure the work wasn’t about myself (how boring that would be). I made around 20 pieces in all, all of them works on paper. So, I tried to put on paper the architectural style of Orrego-Salas. I made dozens of “planet mobiles” using graphite, india ink, watercolor, and sometimes oil, in an effort to make modular pieces that could be picked up and moved around by the designer as he puts together the booklet. I tried very hard to keep the work lean, clean, and precise, the way his music sounds. The reason for the planets is an obsession that came around from Cortés’s astronomical soundscape, Tololo. It was a nice way to combine the two pieces of music and make something that is simple and attractive, without distracting from the music too much. Funnily enough, I gave the designer all of the works and allowed him to choose a cover. He ended up picking out one of the few works that did not represent a mobile. He’s the designer, not me, so I was happy to move forward with that one. His composition was beautiful, I’m thrilled with it. I like the planet mobile concept a lot though for the record and it’ll be visible inside the booklet. (The series will also be available to view on my website once the CD is out). The planet mobile, to me, is about how all these planets and celestial objects are floating around in space, not having much in common other than the universal fact that they are there, in time and space, together. That’s how I feel about the pieces on this album. They’re orbiting their way through the world, not always aware of each other, not always aware that certain delicate but powerful strings are connecting them across space and time: performers, harmonies, locations. It’s comforting.

CMC: Your father, Luis Rossi, is a clarinetist, and your mother, Penelope Knuth, is a violist, both professional musicians. How did growing up with this level of musicianship around you influence you?

GR: My parents are so special. What inspires me the most about them is their understanding of music’s role in society. They don’t talk politics much, so I never thought of them as political people at all. But when I think about how they understand music-making and how they live their lives, it’s very moving. It’s an unspoken non-careerism. Technically, in Chile they are civil servants-- all orchestral musicians are, they work for the state, and this is perfect in a way because that is exactly how they understand their work--- they are offering something to their communities and care above all about the music itself. This strikes me more than ever as a young adult in New York City trying to pave a way forward for myself—any way forward. My mother was my first teacher. She is a truly great violist who studied with William Linzer at Juilliard in the seventies, and she never stops encouraging me to pursue work that I love. She is never concerned for my finances, or securing a good job, only that I do work that I care about and that matters. This astounds me because she raised me on a violist’s income. I’m touched to have her behind me in whatever I choose to pursue, regardless of prestige or finances. She was so proud when I got into Juilliard in 2015. It meant so much to her, I think. I was rejected when I’d applied for my Bachelor’s. So much of it is luck.

My father was something of a prodigy and is a total legend in the clarinet world, a reputation so incredibly well deserved: he is one of those rare inspirations of a person, a virtuoso who also makes his own clarinets from scratch, and has sold  hundreds of these amazing handmade instruments to professionals all over the world from his tiny little workshop in downtown Santiago. Totally amazing. He is my biggest musical inspiration and has been an incredible source of musical guidance and support for me in my twenties. I’m so grateful. When he tells me my playing is good and I know what I’m doing, I know he is telling the truth, and it has helped me build the confidence and inner patience with myself that is so important. Ultimately, as young musicians, you need that to be rock-solid within you, because a lot of the time, you’re working alone.

Audiophile Audition reviews Solomiya Ivakhiv's "Haydn & Hummel Double Concertos"

In 1761 Haydn took an appointment as Vice-Kapellmeister with Prince Paul Anton Esterhazy, among the richest men of the Hungarian-Bohemian Empire. In 1766, now serving the Prince Nicolaus, brother to the late Prince Paul, Haydn succeeded Kapellmeister Gregor Werner, and Haydn retained this post, more or less nominally until his death in 1809.  The Concerto for Piano, Violin and Orchestra seems to have been an immediate product of Haydn’s new status and position, and the music bears a festive character, given its leaning to the keyboard, which the violin both supports and adds lovely, ornamental tissue.

Recorded 15-19 November 2017, the music enjoys the immediate warmth of the two soloists, who in the cadenza sections, play as a salon duet.  Despite the fact that Haydn conceived virtually all of his keyboard works for the harpsichord, the transposition to the modern piano does not intrude upon the transparency of the textures. The opening Allegro moderato proceeds in an Italianate manner, in the Viotti style. Florid and gracious, each partner either echoes or elaborates on the other solo line, then the two blend while the orchestra supplies a transition. The scalar second subject could hardly be more simple, spread over a pedal point. The cadenza plays out like a brief, salon interlude.

The second movement, Largo, opens with the piano’s serving as an obbligato orchestral instrument, in the manner of C.P.E. Bach. A stately processional, it allows the violin the melodic statement. The keyboard will add ornaments to the sweetly flowing, melodic line. A turn to the minor mode adds a touch of Haydn pathos. The piano part combines a parlando style with arpeggios and ad libitum ornaments. The pizzicato accompaniment for both soli contributes to an intimate moment. The four-note motif late in the movement makes us think about what Beethoven would do with it. The last movement, Presto, brisk and robust, swaggers along with a deliberate halt or two and a drop in dynamic levels. The sense of rustic dance permeates the general good nature of the music. The cordial interplay of the two instruments with the orchestra, light-hearted and warmly lyrical, surely will win new and devoted auditors to this relatively novel work.

The Concerto for Piano, Violin and Orchestra, Op. 17 of Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1804) displays a congenial virtuosity of spirit from beginning to end. In traditional three-movement form, the work opens with an airy, martial Allegro con brio that permits a charming interplay between the two soli, often allowing a scalar flourish for the keyboard. The violin, too, indulges in florid passages, often taking up the piano tune to develop its lyrical possibilities.  Hummel did in fact leave his own cadenza for this movement, rather contrary to the “improvised” tradition of the period. Ivakhiv’s sweet tone proves particularly effective in her work prior to the extended pedal point that will lead to the cadenza. Pompa-Baldi leads off, his long trill’s inviting Ivakhin, and the two endear us to the lyrical melody and its roulades. Some humorous touches infiltrate the pages, perhaps in honor of Hummel’s idol, Beethoven.

The second movement, a menuet tune, takes the form of a Thema con Variazioni, among Hummel’s most favored procedures. Rather Mozartean in grace and contour, the air has the character of an operatic aria and its various permutations. There proceed six variants, with Ivakhiv’s entry supported by flourishes in the keyboard. The orchestral part confines itself mostly to a moving bass line. Some woodwind interest – oboe and flute – accepts the invitation to participate. Some horns color the long violin variation, followed by a piano variation of equal length that could easily pass for one of the many Mozart short concerted works for piano and orchestra. The French horn work deserves some note. The last movement, Rondo, exudes a playfulness that has marked the performance as a whole. Genial and inflected with tender affection, the music moves in easy colors – granted by the bassoon – until a rather disarming episode in the minor, a rare moment of Hummel gravity. We ought to recall that Hummel represents the “link,” as it were, between Beethoven and Chopin. Though the soloists do not indulge in a cadenza, their various starts-and-stops have proved energetic and compelling enough.

Excellent sonics, attributable to the well-seasoned Da-Hong Seetoo.

—Gary Lemco

"Victoria Bond at the Cutting Edge" Berkshire Fine Arts profiles Ms. Bond

Composer, Conductor and Musical Polymath

By: Susan Hall - May 10, 2020

Victoria Bond was born to be a musician.  Her grandfather was a composer and conductor.  Her father was an operatic bass, and her mother, a concert pianist.  She found the piano herself. When her kindergarten teacher scolded her mother for pushing Bond too hard, her mother explained that she was trying to hold her back, but could not. 

Bond has never stopped.  She has explored various instruments, including her own voice.  Conducting seemed natural to her.  Yet she was also compelled to compose.  The brutal schedule demanded of conductors was not suited dual career paths. She chose composing and now starts each day transferring what she has heard in dreams and errant thoughts of the night before into notes.  She dreams not only in visual images but in tones.

Her chamber music is enticing.  Dreams of Flying has a movement entitled ‘The Caged Bird Dream of the Jungle” which is accompanied by photographs which enhance and extend our experience. They give a sense of wide spread wings in flight and the string instruments suggest it in notes.

Bond soldiers on with joy, sharing her music, thoughts and stories in multiple forms. 

Her work, even when it is commissioned, is usually driven by wishes and the ideas cooked up over time.

She considers herself first and foremost an opera composer.  In this, the year of women Presidential candidates, and with the selection of a women Vice President on the democratic ticket, her work, Mrs. President, seems prescient. Her mother had found a plaque dedicated to Victoria Woodhull in a San Francisco hotel and suggested the topic to her daughter.

Clara Schumann is another natural topic.  A woman composer whose career was subordinated to her husband’s. Clara’s story has all the drama built-in to professional women’s careers.  There the choice between performance and composition. There is the integration of home, hearth and concert stage. And for women, there is the long time prejudice against women in any public endeavor. 

When Bond’s mother made her debut in Town Hall, the New York Times critic wrote:  "She plays the piano as one might expect a woman to do: with grace, gentleness and sustained lyricism. Miss Courtland is slight of figure and she does not look as if she could muster the strength to be a stormy virtuoso.”  Would anyone have dared write this of a man?

Bond often gives lectures accompanying concerts at prime venues.  Recently her talks on Wagner’s Ring Cycle were sold out at the Metropolitan Opera Guild. Her take on music is consistent. It is a matter of listening.  For novitiates and connoiseurs alike she directs to themes that represent characters.  She signals changes in the themes to reflect the changing situation of the characters.  This is designed to add pleasure to the experience of Walkere.

Bond holds a new music Festival at Symphony Space in New York every year.  Last November, she premiered Clara at the festival. It had its world premiere in Baden-Baden, Germany the spring before.  Operas about composers have the advantage of deep musical reference, which Bond takes into account. Jonathan Estabrooks as Schumann is given a role as beautiful as his composed melodies, and sings his heart out as he courts Clara and stiffens her spine to withstand her father.  The trio's music suggested the feminine in the chimes of the piano's upper register.  Rushing scales and arpeggios give us the sense of the rigorous demands of practicing for a concert career.  The strings offer continuity in their repetitive phrases and passages. The opera gives us a peek into the inner lives of three important musical artists.  The conflicted feelings that arise in women who try to manage career and family are all too clear.  Yet this is a lovely work, enticing and engaging.

In August of 2019, Dell’ Arte Opera presented Mrs. President.  Its subject is very much of the moment. Victoria Woodhull proposed running for President in 1870. Anna Woiwood took on this role with fervor, wiliness and duplicity. She was a heroine to be sure, but one as complicated as any of the women running for the office today. Bond does not shirk from the challenge of presenting this huge and complicated character. Her lines are woven between firm assertions and tempting and tangled suggestions that she has a knife to wield. Bond writes music that sits particularly well in the voice.

An introductory chorus of nine, including one man, is sitting around candles, waiting for Woodhull to lead a séance. Between calling forth the names of dead husbands and fathers and asking for their help, they ask Woodhull to join and lead them. This will be Woodhull’s last group séance. She is going on to advocate free love and power for women. The choral composition is suggestive on many levels Bond decorates phrases with lovely chimes on the piano. She captures the urgent need for these women to make contact with the beyond. Weaving spoken and sung words, Bond's rhythms capture both language and emotion. It feels like a coffee clutch in candlelight. This work is a remarkable feat of composition, womanly or otherwise.

Gulliver’s Travels has been an obsession of Bond’s for a long while. In February of 2019, she performed selections at a Cutting Edge concert.  She both takes off from the iconic tale and follows Lemuel Gulliver.  He is bored by the mannerliness of his wife and family and launches himself on a series of voyages. He visits Lilliput where he is a giant, and the Brobdingnag are miniatures among giants.  The humor of his condition is made much of musically and dramatically.  On he goes to a floating island and the land of the Houyhnhnms.

Doug Fitch directed.  His touch is seen in the addition of implements for dining and a tiny box in which the midget Gulliver resides.  Fitch is a magician of the concert opera.  Designed for adults of all ages, Gulliver ends up at home, because there is no place like home.  Speech alternates with recitative and arias to charm.  This work in progress delights.

In 2012, again at Cutting Edge, Bond’s  delightful chamber work, Coqui, was performed.  Bond had listened as the male frogs,  named coqui after the sound of their mating calls, sang all night in Puerto Rico.  She then created a counterpoint of coqui pitches.  Mixing and matching mating calls were beguiling as performed by the instrumentalists of the Great Noise Ensemble. 

Bond welcomes this new world in which music finds itself.  Ladies who lunch are now ladies who compose, conduct as well as sing.  They are welcome in grand opera and small venues alike.  The new world is welcoming.  Pulitizers and MacArthur’s go to Claire Chase, Ellen Reid, Julia Wolfe and Caroline Shaw.  The road they traverse has been paved by Bond, a pioneer. 

GetClassical reviews Bach Yard at Merkin Hall

by Ilona Oltuski

An interactive musical show for kids, accompanied by their parents, Bach Yard encourages to share the joy of music with young kids, exploring a shared listening experience. Youngsters are introduced to that experience at Merkin Hall, where they are familiarized with different instruments, musical jargon and concert behavior, while acknowledging age appropriate attention span.

Originally coined Baby’s got Bach, with performances at LPR and the 92nd Street Y, the concept of the show (founded in 2010)  has expanded its reach into a well visited communal outreach program for young kids and their parents, offering a lovely introduction to classical music to with series at Rochester, Princeton, and Kaufman Centers’  Merkin Hall’s youngest audiences, pre-k to early lower school ages.

With the participation of young “performers,” from the center’s own Special Music School, and Carnegie Hall’s educational outreach Ensemble Connect, the show also potentially attracts newcomers to the center’s diverse educational programs, like its Special Music School or the Lucy Moses School afternoon programs.

Recently named NPR’s From the Top talent show Regular Guest Host and Creative, Shaham offers a strong presence as an accomplished international concert pianist, which she combines adequately with her extensive experience as an educator and her personal one, as a mother. Shaham also took the opportunity to personally connect with the kids, sharing that she was born in Jerusalem and only later became a New Yorker.

With great authority, she leads kids’ attention – and recognizing the lack thereof – with ample story time interactions, were kids are encouraged to move along with the storyline’s musical characters. A train ride that stops and has the kids stand up, following their musical’s station’s characteristic movements, to partake in a fiesta, a carousel ride and a marching band, inspire kids to actively identify music’s components, moods and tempi.

Incidentally, not all musical works – as the title may suggest – featured works by Bach. While Sunday’s show had kids immersed into works by Bach and Mozart, it also incorporated contemporary works by Avner Dorman, Arthur Honegger and Beata Moon.

Kids were also introduced to the concept of music composition, by becoming composers themselves in a playful activity, prior to the show on stage. Part of this orientation included blowing air through a straw, to visibly move little objects, as an introduction to the show’s instrumental zoo project, in this installment focused on wood wings.

Musicians from Ensemble Connect, then presented the different personal voices of their instruments, oboe, horn, flute, bassoon, and clarinet on stage. Pointing out that different voices are hard to be heard together, except when composed for different instruments, Shaham let the kids scream their name all together, then whisper, then had the instruments collaborate.  Especially original was Shaham’s demonstration of the inner workings of instrumental sound with the help of a garden hose, symbolizing the horn’s untangled channels to its full length and powerful transmission of sound. Always making it easy for kids to connect their real-life experiences, to a specific experience in music, Shaham pointed out that every family member’s voice sounds different, with the tallest person having the deepest voice, when comparing the bassoon to the oboe. Some of the performers were dressed up, to portray different story characters, but while the music performances were all excellent, it all had more in common with the improvisational and low-key spirit of a summer camp slumber party, than a Broadway spectacle.

Directing kids throughout the different activity stations, the concert had started a little late but had a largely uninterrupted flow. Once, when things got a little loud, Shaham, while at the piano, encouraged parents to take kids that needed a break, out of the hall and return at a later point.

Only at the end, when all kids got invited to join Special Music School kids for a “performance” on stage, did it become clear that not all parents’ ambitions were limited to a wholesome afternoon of musical exploration. Ambitiously heaving their kids onto the stage, parents got excited about their kids’ exposure to yet another ingredient of the world of music, the attraction to a little bit of the stage’s star dust.

Shaham’s next Bach Yard at Merkin Hall, Spring Strings, will focus on the family of string instruments.

Violin Channel features Solomiya Ivakhiv's CD of Mendelssohn Concertos

Brilliant Classics has announced the release of Ukrainian-born violinist Solomiya Ivakhiv‘s new album: ‘Mendelssohn‘.

Recorded with pianist Antonio Pompa-Baldi, conductor Theodore Kuchar and the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra, the disc features Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in D Minor – coupled with Mendelssohn’s Concerto in D Minor for Violin, Piano and String Orchestra.

“The discovery of the orchestral version of the Double Concerto was the inspiration behind the album … it is Mendelssohn himself who edited the concerto later in his life and added percussion and wind parts – the Double concerto sounds much more complete and full with such orchestration … ” Solomiya has told The Violin Channel.

“Mendessohn is a brilliant composer and there is so much to discover.”

Take Effect Reviews Solomiya Ivakhiv's "Haydn+Hummel" CD

Double Concertos For Violin And Piano

Centaur, 2020

8/10

Listen to Double Concertos For Violin And Piano

The violin sensation Solomiya Ivakhiv is aligned with pianist Antonio Pompa-Baldi, conductor Theodore Kuchar and the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra on this classical and orchestral adventure that tips it hat to the legends Franz Josef Haydn and Johann Nepomuk Hummel.

“Allegro moderato” opens the affair as Ivakhiv’s violin dances around the keys and orchestra in playful, elegant ways, and “Largo” continues the sophistication with a more subdued approach where a cinematic appeal is present.

The F Major, Hob. XVIII:6 portion exits with the lifting melodies of “Presto”, where swift violin acrobatics guide the classical setting.

The G Major, Op. 17 half offers the soaring “Allegro con brio”, where the 15 minutes glide with precise, agile instrumentation, while “Thema con Variazioni” showcases fluid piano work alongside the stirring strings. “Rondo”, one of the most exciting selections, then finds a busy and glorious place to reside.

The second disc in a series of three, Solomiya has already reworded Mendelssohn with fascinating results, and here she turns in similar, thriving results. The last installment, later this year, will be highly anticipated after seeing what the Ivakhiv has done so far with her craft.

Travels well with: Mendelssohn- Violin Concerto; Solomiya Ivakhiv- Ukraine: Journey To Freedom

Cleveland Classical reviews Solomiya Ivakhiv's "Mendelssohn Concertos" CD

While Felix Mendelssohn’s Concerto in e is played by every violinist at a certain stage in their development, not many listeners are aware of the first violin concerto Mendelssohn composed — in d minor.

His double concerto for violin and piano might be even lesser known. Ukrainian violinist Solomiya Ivakhiv has dedicated her new album Mendelssohn, released by Brilliant Classics, to rediscovering these lost gems. By her side is Italian-born pianist and Cleveland Institute of Music faculty member Antonio Pompa-Baldi. Theodore Kuchar conducts the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra.

Written in 1822, the d-minor concerto clearly belongs to the classical style book. Reminiscent of Mozart, its lyricism is pristine. The string orchestra opens the first movement resolutely. Following the primary lyrical theme, the violin enters unexpectedly, giving rise to Ivakhiv’s skillfully crafted long lines and effective nuancing.

In the second movement, the violinist illustrates numerous bittersweet moments with beautiful, soft colors. The main theme evolves in a gently rising arch of emotion. Nearing the end, the low strings produce a memorable moment of dark rumbling thunder, reminiscent of a distant Midwestern thunderstorm. Staying true to the classical nature of this piece, the darkness doesn’t last long and the violin closes lightly with a translucent harmonic.

Resembling a scherzando, the third movement introduces capricious and playful moods. The violin part is flecked with mini cadenzas weaving in and out of the ever so slightly exotic main theme. More than in any of the previous movements, this finale showcases Ivakhiv’s inherent virtuosity. Kuchar leads the orchestra with admirable precision.

The double concerto is the crowning jewel of this album with its captivating melodies and exquisite Mendelssohnian moments. Written one year later in 1823, this work foreshadows the romantic qualities Mendelssohn would develop later in his compositional life.

The piano embodies several roles throughout the work, from percussive, to an arpeggiating harp, to a choral singer. The most stunning moment in the first movement follows a violin cadenza, where Pompa-Baldi creates a harp-like backdrop of sparkles for the violin’s tender and intimate melody. Ivakhiv’s soft dynamics are nuanced and moving, though a few of the stronger long notes lack direction. The movement has a general feeling of gentle musings, followed by returning energy.

The second movement is serious and grave, embracing a vocal flavor. Above running 16th notes in the piano, the violin plays sustained lines that evoke feelings of innocence. Pompa-Baldi displays beautiful voicing throughout the track. The third movement enters with a blast of energy, showcasing the playful virtuosity of both soloists. 

The album has an appealing audio clarity, but the balances throughout favor the violin in a way that sounds slightly artificial, and also occasionally distort the chamber music connection between the soloists and the orchestra. 

This album sheds light on these early Mendelssohn works, taking a noble stand in service of their sorely needed public exposure.