Product description
Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770) was one of the most widely accomplished musical figures of the 18th century, a brilliant violinist and highly influential pedagogue - and also a visionary scientist researching acoustic phenomena. His 30 piccole sonate are late works when Tartini had achieved a compressed, refined expressivity largely relinquishing the outward virtuosity of his famous "Devil's Trill" Sonata. After performing the 7th sonata from this collection on ECM's Elogio per un'ombra, Makarski has now chosen three more characteristic examples. These solo sonatas alternate with two pieces by American Donald Crockett (born 1951) composed for Makarski and viola player Ronald Copes who joins her on the first of them. 'To Be Sung on the Water' is a duo for violin and viola with muted strings conveying an intense melancholic atmosphere, while Mickey Finn is a very lively speaking monologue, a virtuoso piece echoing both Bach and Ysae which is performed in masterly fashion on this premiere recording. Recorded 2004 Personnel: Michelle Makarski (violin), Ronald Copes (viola)
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This is a most unusual, beautiful recording. Michelle Makarski, winner of numerous competitions including the Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition, is a splendid violinist with a distinctive personal style. Possessor of a masterful, unobtrusive technique and a lovely, remarkably pure yet variable tone, her playing is singularly noble, restrained, and inwardly expressive. Equally at home in pre-baroque and contemporary music, she constantly explores links between the present and the past and actively champions living composers. This recording characteristically pairs three sonatas by Tartini with two pieces by her friend Donald Crockett, one written for her and one for Ronald Copes, who plays viola here. The virtuosic Tartini sonatas are elegantly phrased, rhythmically incisive, and, though played in their original, unaccompanied version and almost without vibrato, impeccably in tune. Crockett's "Mickey Finn" for solo violin, a fiendishly difficult piece, partly songful, partly rambunctious, and full of jumps, running passages, slashing chords and harmonics, is tossed off brilliantly. "To Be Sung on the Water" for violin and viola was inspired by the Schubert song of the same title. Played with mutes, it is all color and atmosphere, evoking the shimmering waves, the glowing sunset, and the gently rocking boat gliding serenely through the fleeting hours like the soul toward eternity. --Edith Eisler
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- Product Dimensions : 5.59 x 0.39 x 4.92 inches; 3.53 ounces
- Manufacturer : Ecm
- Original Release Date : 2006
- Date First Available : February 12, 2007
- Label : Ecm
- Number of discs : 1
