For the Record, Op. 250: Sitkovetsky Trio; Telegraph Quartet; Aline Homzy
Welcome to "For the Record," Violinist.com's weekly roundup of new releases of recordings by violinists, violists, cellists and other classical musicians. We hope it helps you keep track of your favorite artists, as well as find some new ones to add to your listening!
The Sitkovetsky Trio. Photo by Jiyang Chen.
Beethoven Piano Trios, Vol. 2
Sitkovetsky Trio
Alexander Sitkovetsky, violin
Wu Qian, piano
Isang Enders, cello
After the success of its Ravel and Saint-Saëns trios recording, the Sitkovetsky Trio presents the second installment of its series devoted to Beethoven’s piano trios. With the three piano trios, Op. 1, Ludwig van Beethoven took a genre still largely associated with salon music and raised it up to rival the string quartet. The works are innovative in form as well as in content. From this collection, the Trio in G major, Op. 1 No. 2, appears as a cheerful and engaging work. Beethoven - knowing that well-placed dedications could result in princely rewards - dedicated his Piano Trio in B flat major, Op. 97, to the Archduke Rudolph of Austria, hence its nickname, "Archduke" Trio. With this work, Beethoven bade farewell to the genre with arguably his most important contribution, a trio of which a critic wrote that in it "genius, art, nature, truth, spirit, originality, invention, execution, taste, power, fire, imagination, loveliness, deep feeling and lively jesting entwine in sisterly harmony." BELOW: Piano Trio No. 7 in B-Flat Major, Op. 97 "Archduke": I. Allegro moderato
Divergent Paths
Telegraph Quartet
Eric Chin, violin
Joseph Maile, violins
Pei-Ling Lin, viola
Jeremiah Shaw, cello
The Telegraph Quartet's newest album –– the first in a series of recordings titled 20th Century Vantage Points –– features Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major and Arnold Schoenberg’s String Quartet No. 1 in D minor, Op. 7. The Telegraph Quartet found these two works by Ravel and Schoenberg, despite their contrasting qualities, make an appealing and intriguing pair. "As an ensemble, we've always been attracted to these two quartets by Ravel and Schoenberg –– at first for almost opposite reasons: the Ravel Quartet has a vibrant purity, while Schoenberg's epic Quartet No. 1 is thoroughly tumultuous and bewildering. Yet we found that both works, written within two years of one another and by composers of the same age, truly do reflect the sensuality and exploration of the human psyche that was such an important part of the dawn of the 20th century." BELOW: The Ravel was the first piece that the Telegraph began rehearsing together after a 3-month hiatus during the beginning of the pandemic. Here is a video of their first time back together:
Éclipse
Étoile Magique
Aline Homzy, violin
Canadian jazz violinist Aline Homzy presents her debut album, 10 years in the making. "Éclipse is a universe where I can explore the idea of the unknown,” Homzy says. “I’m fascinated by how we capture otherworldliness in music and sounds. When the sun and moon align during an eclipse, the light changes. How do we translate this visual shift into an aural one?" Joining her on the album are vibraphonist Michael Davidson (Joe Chambers), guitarist Thom Gill (Knower), Dan Fortin (Bernice) on bass, and Marito Marques (Ivan Lins) on drums, with special guests João Frade on accordion and vocalist Felicity Williams. BELOW: "Caraway" music video:
If you have a new recording you would like us to consider for inclusion in our "For the Record" feature, please e-mail Editor Laurie Niles. Be sure to include the name of your album, a link to it and a short description of what it includes.
You might also like:
- For the Record, Op. 249: Dorian Bandy; Trio Casals; Cuarteto Soltango
- For the Record, Op. 248: Rachel Barton Pine; Francisco Fullana; violist Georgina Isabel Rossi
- For the Record, Op. 247: Viano Quartet; Agata-Maria Raatz; cellist Clancy Newman
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August 25, 2023 at 05:55 PM · What a delicious selection this week, Laurie - the Ravel quartet for me always evokes his native Basque coast (and vice versa), then a noble 'Archduke' and the exciting Éclipse with beautiful graphics.