J. Brahms - Die Schone Magelone - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Mahler / Levine,James / Lso - Levine Conducts [COMPACT DISCS] date 07/16/2007

Although little known, the literature for two violins has an ancient history, that on one hand refers to the educational purpose of playing together and reciprocally listening to each other, and on the other hand refers to folk tradition. The compositions featured on this album truly move within all these different perspectives they are in part folk music pieces, in part pieces with a didactic aim, but above all they are dialogs with a high chamber music value. Bartók and Prokofiev, with the Forty-four duets and the Sonata for two violins gifted us with two cornerstones of the literature for these instruments in the narrow space of two years, 1931 and 1932, opening this repertoire to new textures and new languages.

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine, Inchan exciting, boundary-defying performerInch (Washington Post) known for her Inchbravura technique and soulful musicianshipInch (New York Times), headlines a groundbreaking album of blues-influenced classical works for violin and violin and piano by 20th and 21st century composers of African descent. World-premiere recordings include Noel Da Costa's 'A Set of Dance Tunes for Solo Violin,' based on American fiddle tunes; Daniel Bernhard Roumain's 'Filter,' which conjures the sounds of electronic dance music and psychedelic guitar; Errollyn Wallen's 'Woogie Boogie,' a humorous and inventive reimaging of the boogie woogie blues dance; and Billy Childs's 'Incident,' a single-movement violin sonata / tone poem written as a response to a fatal shooting by police. Another premiere is Wendall Logan's violin and piano arrangement of Duke Ellington's 1935 composition, 'In a Sentimental Mood.' The album's title track, Dolores White's improvisational 'Blues Dialogues,' draws on classical, jazz, and country music, as well as African-American vocalizations and a blues harmonic language. David N. Baker's gospel-tinged 'Blues (Deliver My Soul)' evokes the ecstatic energy of a Black church service. Charles S. Brown's 'A Song Without Words' was inspired by bottleneck guitar player and gospel blues master Blind Willie Johnson. Each movement of William Grant Still's 'Suite for Violin and Piano' evokes the work of a different African-American visual artist. Clarence Cameron White's 'Levee Dance, Op. 26, No. 2,' a favorite of violin virtuoso Jascha Heifetz, surrounds a traditional African-American spiritual with a playful, syncopated dance. Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson's 'Blue/s Forms' and 'Louisiana Blues Strut' befit a composer with a legacy of achievements in the classical, jazz, modern dance, and pop music worlds.