Schumann: The Sonatas for Violin and Piano
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Composer: Robert SchumannPerformer: Reiko Uchida
Performer: Jennifer Koh
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2007-03-13
Music Label: Cedille
Free Music Notes for Schumann: The Sonatas for Violin and Piano
Free Music Review: Schumann's Sonatas for Violin and Piano From Two Great Young Musicians
Hit: 5 Stars
We live in a time when classical music no longer holds as much sway over the intellectual hearts and minds of the general public, at least here, in the United States, forcing the major recording companies to scale back, and indeed, virtually curtail, the recording of new classical CDs, especially by relatively unknown, but extremely gifted, young musicians. Happily, organizations like the Chicago Classical Recording Foundation have tried filling this void, and are capable now of producing recordings worthy of note as potential Grammy Award nominations. One of its most recent recordings, that of Robert Schumann's three sonatas for violin and piano, certainly qualifies, since it is an especially fine recording featuring the talents of two young musicians with bright futures ahead of them: pianist Reiko Uchida - whom I have heard perform live at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York - and, especially, violinist Jennifer Koh. Recorded almost a year apart, at the Performing Arts Center, SUNY (State University of New York), Purchase, NY (Sonatas 1 and 2), and at the auditorium of the Academy of Arts and Letters in New York, NY (Sonata 3), this recording is distinguished primarily for the exceptional playing shown by both musicians, but also for its superb sound quality, which rivals those from the major labels.
The words "impressive", "compelling", "lyrical" and "rhapsodic" are suitable adjectives to describe the excellent playing of violinist Jennifer Koh and pianist Reiko Uchida. Theirs is a true partnership, in which each takes turn in trading off motifs and extensive passages within each score. And yet I am especially impressed with the fiery, impassioned playing from Jennifer Koh, who can be as subtle as is called for within in the score, yet play with such loud, intense playing that clearly demonstrates her extraordinary technical skills, as though she was a younger, more technically proficient, version of either Anne-Sophie Mutter or Joshua Bell. Hers is a future that is most definitely one worth observing, even as the field becomes ever more crowded with a bumper crop of exceptional young American, European and Asian violinists; musically her closest rival may be the better known Hilary Hahn. Of other recordings I have heard of these works, the one which is still my primary recommendation features violinist Gidon Kremer for the dynamic qualities of his musicianship. But this fine recording of these works does come close in matching that great violinist's artistry, and at a price that will please both long-time fans of these scores and those who are unfamiliar with them.
Schumann: The Sonatas for Violin and Piano Poster
"Jennifer Koh is a risk-taking, high-octane player of the kind who grabs the listener by the ears and refuses to let go. Unlike so many players of this temperament, however, she supports her mesmerizing flights of fancy with a beguilingly silvery tone, fabulous technique and dead center intonation." -- The StradBorn in Chicago, Jennifer Koh studied at Oberlin College and the Curtis Institute. She currently resides in New York City. A prolific recitalist, she appears frequently at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Spoleto Festival, and other prestigious venues. She has also appeared with major orchestras throughout the world. As a virtuoso whose natural flair is combined with a probing intellectual acuity, Koh is committed to exploring connections between the pieces she plays, searching for similarities of voice between different composers as well as within the works of a single composer. In her own words: "Playing and recording the Schumann Sonatas is one of my most personal projects to date ... Schumann's music is the most human, with its viscerally haunting, obsessive, tender, and vulnerable extremes ... A single phrase is like a poignant memory that returns, and with each visit is reborn more vividly, more passionately, more tenderly than before."
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