And what chamber music DOES result from this young American trio based in New York, the capital of interesting music definitely of the U.S., maybe the world (sorry, Berlin, but you just don't mach up in contemporary music - although you've got classical music nailed).
Since I've decided to try and write like an ex-critic, which I am, I'm going to try and feel my way through how I really thought and felt about this CD.
First of all, Schickele. Schickele? I mean it's fun music and all, but risky to put in position 1 on your debut CD, guys.
Khachaturian: this caught my ear. Beautiful, full-blooded playing. Gulia's shifts are not always perfect, but then, neither are mine. Lately I've come to understand and accept more and more that the kind of technical security that would guarantee shifts entails an investment of one's humanity away from one's musical feeling, i.e. a sacrifice I personally have never been able of willing to make. (This, by the way, was a law passed by the Violin Gods. Surpassed only by Heifetz.) You come across so much as a person in your playing, Gulia. I heard and felt your warmth, your gift.
I enjoyed the Milhaud - part of this exists in a Violin Duo version, right?
You see? I could never write such things in a "review"! But really, this is what I would want to say to her: complimenti.
I think that anyone worldwide looking for a recording of any of these pieces would feel it was a good introduction to the pieces as musical works and really come to love them.
I understand and totally support the culture on which the primacy of works is predicated - we musicians are interpreters who bring past masterpieces to life.
I live this culture - my income as a classical violinist depends on society valuing Shostakovich quartets, or Beethoven symphonies, or Dvorak's Rusalka, in live performance.
My worry is that this culture is becoming obsolete. And it really bothers me, for 2 reasons: 1) there is a lot of really great contemporary classical music out there, but there's also a whole lotta great other kinds of music out there (and we gotta compete with that? We gotta be at our "coolest" when we are being quoted by Bjork?) and 2) my deep down feeling is that the Golden Age of Western Music has passed by now, along with the Golden Age of Western Civilization. But more about that another time...
I wonder if you started with Schickele because you knew to end with Piazzolla and then... where else to put Schickele? (Position 3 might have been an option.)
I loved the Piazzolla: sassy. It also boldly disregarded the relevance of categorizations like "classical" and "non-classical" maybe. Gulia, here your solo, one that I became familiar with listening to Gidon Kremer, was truly brought alive. Wow, Sasha's a lucky man!! And R. is a lucky little girl!
I can't really comment on the piano or clarinet playing since I'm no expert but from a violinist's point of view I'd say that if my ears don't lie I would love to play chamber music with you both too.
Lately I have had the pleasure of working in a new string quartet configuration. The process of discovering each other musically and in relation to Shostakovich (# 3 and #13, wow, amazing pieces) has reminded me of the great joys and personal reality checks of being a chamber musician.
This quality of being a chamber musician really comes across in Prima's playing on this CD. I just hope I can play as much to my own potential as a chamber musician this Sunday at the Kollwitz Museum with 3 amazing musicians who... well, I so wish we could all get together for an evening of chamber music sometime.
[... written last week, as Part I of a multi-part series, I hope?]
