Have Another To-Do List
CD: Chee-Yun: Violin Essentials
Some weeks back a friend and I decided we both needed to see The Bucket List, a recent movie about two cancer patients who decide they'll systematically accomplish a lifetime's worth of dreams and ambitions. It goes without saying that our two heroes aim for soul-enriching experiences, such as seeing the pyramids, and not, for example, cleaning out their closets. Since then I have kept my own bucket list, a rather modest one. After all, life is not like the movies, except for the copious profanity.
Still, I'm a warm advocate of list-making, whether the subject is groceries, Shakespearean plays, or movies. It's worth asking: What do you need? What do you want? What belongs among your life's priorities?
These days several labels are very much in that list-making mode. RCA, for example, issued a series of Essential collections, attractively priced double-disc sets such as The Essential Leon Fleisher, The Essential Montserrat Caballe, The Essential Jose Carreras, even The Essential Julian Bream.
Note to self: Make time to listen to Bream.
Anyway, Denon too has gotten into the act, with budget retrospective collections from Helene Grimaud (Piano Essentials: The World's Greatest Piano Music) and Chee-Yun (Violin Essentials: The World's Greatest Violin Music).
That description, The World's Greatest Violin Music, certainly sets the bar high. Fiddle fans out there are probably already guessing what's on the playlist. Most of you won't need to be told that Massenet's "Meditation" from Thais is included, along with "Salut d'amour" (Elgar) and "Vocalise" (Rachmaninoff). And yes, there's a movement from Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. How could there not be?
I was first taken with Chee-Yun when she released a recital disc on the Denon label back in the '90s. Her emotional expressiveness, even in the most familiar pieces, was immensely appealing.
On this CD, several tracks feature Chee-Yun as the soloist with the London Philharmonic, under the baton of Jesus Lopez-Cobos. The disc opens with the Rondo Allegro from Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole, in which the orchestra gradually announces itself and then the violinist skips in her part. It's rather like having party guests sneaking in one by one and then cranking up the music. We're here!
On most of the tracks, though, the musicians melt away to just two: Chee-Yun and her pianist, Akira Eguchi (of The Faure Album and The Fiddler of the Opera, both with Gil Shaham). I love the subtlety and hint of melancholy in the Nocturne from Khachaturian. The CD closes with a selection from Franck's Sonata for Violin and Piano in A Major, in which the musicians seem to echo and answer in each other in beautifully flowing passages. It provides a graceful coda to a most pleasurable album.
Some weeks back a friend and I decided we both needed to see The Bucket List, a recent movie about two cancer patients who decide they'll systematically accomplish a lifetime's worth of dreams and ambitions. It goes without saying that our two heroes aim for soul-enriching experiences, such as seeing the pyramids, and not, for example, cleaning out their closets. Since then I have kept my own bucket list, a rather modest one. After all, life is not like the movies, except for the copious profanity.
Still, I'm a warm advocate of list-making, whether the subject is groceries, Shakespearean plays, or movies. It's worth asking: What do you need? What do you want? What belongs among your life's priorities?
These days several labels are very much in that list-making mode. RCA, for example, issued a series of Essential collections, attractively priced double-disc sets such as The Essential Leon Fleisher, The Essential Montserrat Caballe, The Essential Jose Carreras, even The Essential Julian Bream.
Note to self: Make time to listen to Bream.
Anyway, Denon too has gotten into the act, with budget retrospective collections from Helene Grimaud (Piano Essentials: The World's Greatest Piano Music) and Chee-Yun (Violin Essentials: The World's Greatest Violin Music).
That description, The World's Greatest Violin Music, certainly sets the bar high. Fiddle fans out there are probably already guessing what's on the playlist. Most of you won't need to be told that Massenet's "Meditation" from Thais is included, along with "Salut d'amour" (Elgar) and "Vocalise" (Rachmaninoff). And yes, there's a movement from Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. How could there not be?I was first taken with Chee-Yun when she released a recital disc on the Denon label back in the '90s. Her emotional expressiveness, even in the most familiar pieces, was immensely appealing.
On this CD, several tracks feature Chee-Yun as the soloist with the London Philharmonic, under the baton of Jesus Lopez-Cobos. The disc opens with the Rondo Allegro from Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole, in which the orchestra gradually announces itself and then the violinist skips in her part. It's rather like having party guests sneaking in one by one and then cranking up the music. We're here!
On most of the tracks, though, the musicians melt away to just two: Chee-Yun and her pianist, Akira Eguchi (of The Faure Album and The Fiddler of the Opera, both with Gil Shaham). I love the subtlety and hint of melancholy in the Nocturne from Khachaturian. The CD closes with a selection from Franck's Sonata for Violin and Piano in A Major, in which the musicians seem to echo and answer in each other in beautifully flowing passages. It provides a graceful coda to a most pleasurable album.
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