Solomiya Ivakhiv & Steven Beck – Ukrainian Masters (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 58:05 minutes | 997 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Naxos
The expressive vitality in this collection of violin sonatas transcends the cultural upheavals from which these three Ukrainian composers emerged. Bortkiewicz’s Violin Sonata in G minor is among the most impressive of his relatively few chamber works, finding his musical language at its most vivid and directly communicative. Kosenko’s Violin Sonata in A minor is notable for the satisfying balance of its two subtly differentiated movements. Skoryk’s Second Violin Sonata is a stylistically diverse chamber work, with pointed allusions to Beethoven, Prokofiev and Gershwin during its compact and always eventiul course.
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Steven Beck – Jeffrey Hall: Artifacts (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:19:22 minutes | 1,17 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Navona
Jeffrey John Hall resists conventionality, both in his compositions as well as in their titles. Hence the album consisting of his Seven Piano Pieces isn’t called a suite or a cycle, but simply ARTIFACTS. Immaculately performed by pianist Steven Beck, these profoundly cerebral works, written between 1976 and late 2019, mesmerize with a sober exploration of contemporary compositional techniques and the expressive potential of the piano. Often minimal, always highly subjective, Hall’s works embrace a flawless balance of communicative functionality and aesthetics, perfectly encapsulating their respective pocket of time, in quite the same manner as an archeological artifact, indeed.
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Elizabeth Chang, Steven Beck, Alberto Parrini – Transformations (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:02:52 minutes | 659 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Albany Records
American violinist Elizabeth Chang’s new album Transformations on Albany Records brings together works by Leon Kirchner (1919-2009), Roger Sessions (1896-1985) and Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951). As can be seen from the press release, this is about teacher-student relationships. Chang was a student of Leon Kirchner at Harvard University. Kirchner, for his part, studied with both Sessions and Schoenberg. The program begins with Kirchner’s Second Duo for Violin and Piano, a modern piece from 2002 alternating between lively and very delicately lyrical moments. Elizabeth Chang and Steven Beck play it intensely with the utmost commitment, the violinist continually delighting with ravishing cantabile. Roger Sessions’ four-movement solo sonata for violin is, according to the composer, « rhapsodic. » The first movement is of fragile lyricism, the second and the Finale are virtuosic and brilliant, while the Adagio in Elisabeth Chang’s interpretation becomes gorgeously tender, like a modern lullaby. Chang and cellist Alberto Parrini perform Robert Sessions’ Duo for Violin and Cello with real flair and commitment. Like Sessions’ Duo, Schoenberg’s Phantasy for Violin with Piano Accompaniment, Op. 47 (1949), is the composer’s last chamber work. The dodecaphonic composition is virtuosic and sometimes genuinely dance-like, while being really technically challenging in the violin part. But Elizabeth Chang masters this brilliantly and elegantly at the same time, her playing standing out pleasantly to my ears from the far more brash approach of a Gidon Kremer. And so the line of excellent interpretations runs through a program of transformations…
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