Search - Corigliano, Macomber, Walsh :: Sonata for Violin & Piano / Violin Sonata

Solid recording of worthwhile violin and piano music

klavierspiel | TX, USA | 11/13/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The careers of the two composers on this recording represent an interesting study in contrast. There is Amy Cheney Beach, hailed as a brilliantly talented piano prodigy, who gave up her performing career when she married, in favor of a respectable career as a composer in her native Boston at a time when recognized female composers were a rarity. John Corigliano, on the other hand, is at the peak of an international career, fame and adulation as one of the foremost living American composers, having composed scores for widely distributed films, symphonies played by the New York Philharmonic, and an opera premiered by the Metropolitan company.



Curtis Macomber and Diane Walsh explore an intersection in the musical lives of these two very different figures, pairing violin and piano sonatas written by each. Beach's Sonata in A minor Op. 34 is a carefully crafted work in a Brahmsian vein of lyricism, composed with economy of motive, concision of form and doses of counterpoint in the finale. If it has a flaw it might be that it lacks the last word in melodic distinction--the slow third movement, which ought to be the expressive peak, instead seems the least memorable of the four because of this. The two shorter pieces by Beach included on the CD, Romance and Invocation, are more appealing infusions of lyricism. Corigliano's early Violin Sonata (1964) is brash and refreshing, a piece that echoes Copland and Prokofiev (particularly in the finale) but that speaks with an already distinctive voice. Macomber and Walsh ride its many technical difficulties with ease, although the violinist's pitch turns vague negotiating some corners at the top of his range. Their playing in the Beach pieces is consistently warm and expressive. All in all this is a most appealing collection of important American chamber music."