By Laurie Niles: 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! Click on the highlighted links to obtain each album or learn more about the artists.AequoraMystery Sonata duoZachary Carrettin, violinMina Gajic, pianoCensored AnthemsAubree Oliverson, violinParlando, Ian Niederhoffer conductingNew Baroque - SonatasAda Witczyk, violin
This newest release by pianist Mina Gajic and violinist Zachary Carrettin is the married duo's first to be recorded under the moniker "Mystery Sonata." Inspired by Iceland and the cultural legacy of its music, Aequora features compositions by several prominent Icelandic composers, including Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Daníel Bjarnason, María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir, and Páll Ragnar Pálsson. "Zachary and I traveled to Iceland to experience the landscapes and to meet with several composers, exploring their work and observing where the connections between their interests and ours as a duo seemed congruous," Gajic said. BELOW: "First Escape" by Daníel Bjarnason.
"Censored Anthems" explores music from the 20th century as a tool of cultural resilience in the face of censorship, particularly in the Soviet Union. The album opens with a selection from Dmitri Shostakovich's controversial opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, arranged by Niederhoffer. Following is the Concertino for Violin and String Orchestra by the Polish, Soviet, and Russian composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg, whose career was shaped by persecution during Stalins anti-cosmopolitan campaign. The American violinist Aubree Oliverson is the featured soloist. The final piece is the Symphony for String Orchestra and Timpani by the Armenian composer Edvard Mirzoyan, the son of a survivor of the Armenian Genocide. Andrew Beall is the featured timpanist. "The story of Soviet music is often told as one of individual repression, but I became entranced by the idea of Soviet music as cultural resilience," offers Niederhoffer, who founded Parlando in 2019 with the vision of every concert telling a story. BELOW: Trailer for the album.
Like so many musicians in the year 2020, Polish violinist Ada Witczyk found herself using quarantine as a time to think outside the box about how to continue making music, and ultimately decided on creating a composition competition: the Ruicková Composition Competition. After its fifth iteration in 2024, Witczyk herself recorded the winning selections with a small consort of fellow instrumentalists, and the result is this album. Born in Poland in 1993, Ada has performed at many of the UKs most prestigious venues and festivals including Buckingham Palace, Royal Festival Hall, Barbican, Royal Albert Hall, Cadogan Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields and the Royal Opera House, including performances with the Gabrieli Consort, The English Concert, The Academy of Ancient Music, The Sixteen, St James' Baroque and Florilegium. BELOW: Excerpts from "New Baroque - Sonatas."distantViolinSoundMiranda Cuckson, violinDoori Na, violin Jing Yang, pianoReiko Füting, composer
New York-based German composer Reiko Füting releases his fifth portrait album, distantViolinSound. Featuring seven instrumental works of gradually increasing size, all feature the violin in some capacity, beginning with Miranda Cuckson on solo violin, performers on the album include violinist Doori Na and pianist Jing Yang, trio Longleash, Quartet121, Unheard-of Ensemble, Noise Catalogue+, and SchallSpektrum conducted by Jan Michael Horstmann. Commissioned by violinist Miranda Cuckson, Fütings "passage: time (copy)" (2019) for solo violin is based on quotations from Heinrich Franz Ignaz Biber, August Kühnel, Johann Paul von Westhoff, Johann Georg Pisendel, and Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as self-quotations. BELOW: Miranda Cuckson plays Reiko Füting's "passage: time (copy)."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. 321: Christian Li; violist Timothy Ridout; Renaud Capuçon
- For the Record, Op. 320: María Dueñas, Simone Porter, Danbi Um, PatKop, Elvin Hoxha Ganiyev
- For the Record, Op. 319: Tomás Cotik; Ernst Kovacic; Lisa Oshima
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