Pizzicato review “Exzellentes Programm für Violine und Klavier”

In addition to pianist Arseniy Gusev, this album features Canadian-American violinist Shannon Lee, born in 1992. She studied with Ida Kavafian and Jaime Laredo, among others. I 1992 she won Fourth Prize at the Reine Elisabeth in Brussels.

She is accompanied on the piano by Arseniy Gusev, a pianist born in St. Petersburg and now living in the USA, who has recently attracted attention for his solidarity concerts for Ukraine.

The program begins with Szymanowski’s La fontaine d’Aréthuse from Mythes, an intoxicatingly sensual piece played by the two soloists with total devotion and wonderful misterioso.

This is followed by Bela Bartok’s three-movement Violin Sonata No. 1, a work that Lee and Gusev explore far more emotionally than other interpreters who approach the work analytically and intellectually.

This interpretation is thrilling, and Lee and Gusev prove to be equal, technically excellent partners whose real strength lies in their communication. Their musical dialogue, their sensitive yet very refined performances, and their very lively playing make it relatively easy for the listener to access this rather complicated work.   

Come di lontananza from the Reflections by Boris Lyatoshynsky sounds quite magical.

This is followed by Bohuslav Martinu’s colorful and virtuosic Impromptus and the very charming Lullaby by Grazyna Bacewicz, who also wrote the eponymous Witraz, whose shimmering colors are enchanting in this ethereal performance.

Stravinsky’s neoclassical Duo Concertant, like Bartok’s, is not austere, but excitingly rhetorical. The duo is a tour-de-force for performers, but Lee and Gusev have no difficulty whatsoever. Their playing is lively and light, almost dance-like, with wonderfully lyrical passages. I have never heard this composition as seductive as on this album… The concluding Dithyrambe is one of the most lyrically beautiful pieces Stravinsky wrote, and Shannon Lee’s golden-warm violin works wonders here.

https://www.pizzicato.lu/exzellentes-programm-fur-violine-und-klavier/