Starter Packs

Complete your collection with these curated titles, grouped at a special discount.

Shop Now
Catalyst

Fratres - Corigliano, Part / Maria Bachmann

$17.99

Details

Composer
CORIGLIANO, JOHN GLINSKY, ALB
Artist
Maria, Jon, Bachmann, Klibonoff
Format
CD
Label
Catalyst
Released
Jan 14, 2011
Catalog #
CAT64298
UPC
828766429824

About

Here's a double-barrelled surprise: gripping new music for violin and piano and a performing style that revisits a sweet-scented immediacy more typical of previous generations.

Here's a double-barrelled surprise: gripping new music for violin and piano and a performing style that revisits a sweet-scented immediacy more typical of previous generations. Maria Bachmann, a pupil of Ivan Galamian and the late Szymon Goldberg, has a bright, winsome tone and a heartwarming interpretative manner. The works that particularly suit her are Corigliano's 1963 Violin Sonata and the two pieces that were written with her in mind, Albert Glinsky's Toccata-Scherzo and Paul Moravec's Sonata. Of the latter two, the Glinsky is the more memorable—a sort of Sarasate for the 1990s, its lyrical centre-piece flanked by brilliant outer sections. The Moravec is busy and pleasant, but even Bachmann's dextrous advocacy can't quite mask its stylistic anonymity. The Corigliano, on the other hand, harbours the kind of juicy 'tunes' that modern players search for in vain but hardly ever find in contemporary music. The Lento is strikingly memorable, whereas elsewhere Corigliano demands all the tricks of the fiddler's trade—harmonics, pizzicatos, sal pondcello and so on, all couched in an appealing musical context that might best be described as Stravinsky-cum-Samuel Barber.

Turning then to Fratres and comparing Bachmann with Gidon Kremer (ECM), I was interested to note how Bachmann arpeggiates pizzicato chords, a gesture totally in keeping with her warmer, less spidery approach. Ksemer's rougher-edged but rather more ethereal reading still gets my vote, but Bachmann provides an engagingly demonstrative alternative. Messiaen himself said of his "Praise to the Immortality of Jesus" that it "specifically addresses the second aspect of Jesus, namely His human aspect, the Word that has become flesh, resurrected immortal to give Him life." And it's as well to bear that in mind when listening to Bachmann's unusually sensuous performance, an affectionate, this-worldly option to the more withdrawn manner of, say, Luben Yordanoff (with Barenboim on DG).

Bachmann receives sympathetic support from Jon Klibonoff and both are nicely recorded. I thoroughly enjoyed this recital, and I sincerely hope that there's another on the way. But if and when it arrives, I do hope that RCA drop their tiresome idea of fold-up annotation: within a day or so, my copy was already beginning to look like an old shopping list. Booklets are far better. Incidentally, why photograph the immensely personable Maria Bachmann entangled in net curtains?

-- Robert Cowan, Gramophone [12/1993]

Tracklist 10 tracks

  1. 1 I. Allegro 02:37
    Track
    1
    Title
    I. Allegro
    Duration
    02:37
    Composer
    John Corigliano Jr.
    Performer
    Maria Bachmann, Jon Klibonoff
  2. 2 II. Andantino 07:14
    Track
    2
    Title
    II. Andantino
    Duration
    07:14
    Composer
    John Corigliano Jr.
    Performer
    Maria Bachmann, Jon Klibonoff
  3. 3 III. Lento 04:53
    Track
    3
    Title
    III. Lento
    Duration
    04:53
    Composer
    John Corigliano Jr.
    Performer
    Maria Bachmann, Jon Klibonoff
  4. 4 IV. Allegro 07:41
    Track
    4
    Title
    IV. Allegro
    Duration
    07:41
    Composer
    John Corigliano Jr.
    Performer
    Maria Bachmann, Jon Klibonoff
  5. 5 Fratres (version for violin and piano) 11:24
    Track
    5
    Title
    Fratres (version for violin and piano)
    Duration
    11:24
    Composer
    Arvo Pärt
    Performer
    Maria Bachmann, Jon Klibonoff
  6. 6 I. Lively 09:13
    Track
    6
    Title
    I. Lively
    Duration
    09:13
    Composer
    Paul Moravec
    Performer
    Maria Bachmann, Jon Klibonoff
  7. 7 II. Singing, tender, rubato 07:30
    Track
    7
    Title
    II. Singing, tender, rubato
    Duration
    07:30
    Composer
    Paul Moravec
    Performer
    Maria Bachmann, Jon Klibonoff
  8. 8 III. Impish, sprightly 05:37
    Track
    8
    Title
    III. Impish, sprightly
    Duration
    05:37
    Composer
    Paul Moravec
    Performer
    Maria Bachmann, Jon Klibonoff
  9. 9 Toccata-Scherzo 05:06
    Track
    9
    Title
    Toccata-Scherzo
    Duration
    05:06
    Composer
    Albert Glinsky
    Performer
    Maria Bachmann, Jon Klibonoff
  10. 10 Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time): VIII. Louange à l'immortalité de Jésus (In Praise of the Immortality of Jesus) 07:20
    Track
    10
    Title
    Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time): VIII. Louange à l'immortalité de Jésus (In Praise of the Immortality of Jesus)
    Duration
    07:20
    Composer
    Olivier Messiaen
    Performer
    Maria Bachmann, Jon Klibonoff