June 3, 2019

  • Modern Music for Violin from duo526

    Duo Fantasy
    Duo526:
    Kerry Duwors, violin.
    Futaba Niekawa, piano.
    Navona Records 6231
    Total Time:  64:20
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    Three works for violin and piano spanning almost 60 years are the focus for Duo526’s latest release.  The two started working together in 2011 while at the Eastman School of Music.  They take their name from the Koechel catalog number of the first work they collaborated on—a Mozart sonata.  The two earlier 20th Century pieces come from a time when there was much change in the air and are examples of composers exploring modernist styles in unique ways.

    Chamber music by Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959) is perhaps less familiar to listeners than his work for orchestra and soloists.  A number of his chamber works have made it to disc, though there is only one other recording of his second Sonata Fantasia available, and that more than a decade old now.  The piece was part of three sonatas the composer worked on in the 1910s.  Though it was completed in 1914, it would take four decades before the work to see the light of day.  The music shows some of the other aspects of Villa-Lobos’ developing musical language with a fast-paced modernist opening movement with a tinge of folkish rhythm, a central Largo more aligned with French impressionist echoes though the solo line is a bit more sinuous, and a final movement that is unabashedly romantic.  Duwors’ performance of the second movement is quite stunning.  Niekawa navigates these changing moods and technical requirements beautifully and one can also hear how the duo shape and breathe through the phrases of the piece.  Balance is excellent with the violin forward in the sound picture and the piano warming the sound around it.

    Hints of World War I hover through Arnold Bax’s (1883-1953) Violin Sonata No. 2 (1915/1920) coupled with the political unrest of Ireland.  A motif from Bax’s November Woods also informs the work and is worth listening to as a companion to this work.  The piece is cast across four interconnected movements with the intense second-moment waltz, “The Grey Dancer in the Twilight”, perhaps grabbing the listener most.  There are some important connections to Bax’s larger-scale works with his use of small motives that become an important kernel that is explored across the music building on the thematic transformation techniques of Liszt.  There is also a hint of Wagnerian aesthetics in the harmony and shape of lines.  The latter is of special interest in the opening movement where it continues to evolve and expand with gradually more somber harmonic interjections.  Some of the inner anguish comes out in the opening bars of the second movement which begins to move towards a bit of Liszt with the impressionist dissolution of Ravel.  Perhaps this exploration of the two musical styles is but another comment on Bax’s own wonder of where art and his own music might fit, something which makes the third movement seem to wander.  Or, it may be another contemplation of where the modern world was heading.  The “Allegro feroce” finale feels like a composer refusing to let the world overcome him, responding with forceful resistance.  Here, as in the earlier work, the lyricism is really brought out while the harmonic sense of despair and longing comes to the forefront as the piano provides the mood for the solo contemplations.

    The more contemporary Duo Fantasy (1973) by William Bolcom (1938-) brings this musical journey to a close.  It comes from a period when the composer was melding a variety of different influences a la Ives.  The piece opens with a more angular, pointillistic quality before heading through references to Tin Pan Alley, hymns, ragtime and other dance suggestions, as well as a bit of sentimentality.  At a deeper level, the music seems to be almost a summation of the 20th Century inviting a deeper, more reflective expectation on the part of the composer.  The clarity of articulation, especially for the more angular sections of the music, allow for some pleasant contrast to the earlier works and further bring out other aspects of Duwors technique.  The piece requires some extreme registral playing and shifts which are handled fairly well here with intonation quite stunning.  Visceral and motoric sections are dashed off with great precision by both members of the duo.  The more lyrical sections provide often gorgeous contrasts as both make requisite shifts to connect to Bolcom's own changing musical inferences.

    With its exploration of engaging and rare repertoire, Duo Fantasy is easily a must for those who are interested in 20th Century music for violin.  Each work is an important window into the changing aesthetics, developing musical voices, and reactions to the changing world around each of the composers represented.