Carl Vine is one of Australia’s most eminent and internationally admired composers. His four piano sonatas span three decades and trace his diverse musical development....

Carl Vine is one of Australia’s most eminent and internationally admired composers. His four piano sonatas span three decades and trace his diverse musical development. The earliest sonata is exuberant, pulsating with driving rhythms, while No. 2 enshrines a jazz-inspired toccata alongside memorable virtuoso pyrotechnics. Vivid fantasia elements mark out No. 3, juxtaposing the aphorism, reflection and turbulence of No. 4. With their traditional forms Vine’s sonatas are sophisticated, lyrical, urgent and compelling contemporary statements. Pianist Xiaoya Liu has captured the imagination of worldwide audiences through her pro-found artistry and charismatic performances as concerto soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician across Asia, Europe, and the United States with orchestras such as the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, Marquette Symphony Orchestra, Round Rock Symphony, University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra, GSIM Festival Orchestra and in venues including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Hill Auditorium, Palazzo Biscari, and Shanghai Concert Hall.

REVIEW:

Austrian composer Carl Vine has a maximalist approach both to expression and to pianistic technique—but there are moments when I wonder whether the technical difficulty is necessary in conveying the emotional content. The first theme of the First Sonata’s second movement, for example, is a lightning-fast flurry of 16th notes that requires both hands to remain stretched to a 10th through much of the passage and to leap as much as an octave and a half between iterations of the figuration. This places the hands in a near-continual stress position, but the musical effect is reminiscent of the final movement in Chopin’s “Funeral March” Sonata, in which Chopin allows the hands to remain in a relaxed position. Liu (and others) play the passage as if effortlessly, but I have a clear idea of the effort they must have put into mastering it, and I can’t say the passage merits that level of difficulty (and—frankly—physical discomfort if not risk of injury). Likewise, the opening of the Second Sonata involves bold chords in the treble punctuated by low bass octaves and cascades of arpeggios that span the entire range of the piano. The effect is colorful, but does it absolutely require a race from the next-to-highest octave of the piano to its lowest note and back? It’s not that I object in any way to virtuosity or athleticism in music; I’m just not always convinced that Vine’s music needs to be quite as busy as it often is. And the very few times that Xiaoya Liu is anything other than exquisitely subtle in her playing—times when she places a melody in undifferentiated accented relief rather than phrasing it with her characteristic sensitivity—it is because the writing is so thick and the physical demands so intense that she could hardly do otherwise.

But that criticism does not detract from my impression that each one of Vine’s four sonatas is tremendously expressive and is a substantial addition to the piano sonata repertoire. Xiaoya Liu gives each one a searching, thoughtful interpretation. And the sound quality is excellent throughout the recording. I give it a very strong recommendation.

-- Fanfare