Transformations Elizabeth Chang, Steven Beck, Alberto Parrini

• Leon Kirchner (1919 - 2009):
• 1 Kirchner: Duo No. 2 for Violin and Piano 15:04
• Roger Sessions (1896 - 1985):
• 2 Sessions: Solo Sonata: I. Tempo Moderato 10:47
• 3 Sessions: Solo Sonata: Ii. Molto Vivo 06:30
• 4 Sessions: Solo Sonata: Iii. Adagio e dolcemente 09:14
• 5 Sessions: Solo Sonata: Iv. Alla marcia vivace 04:34
• 6 Sessions: Duo for Violin and Cello 08:21
• Arnold Schoenberg (1874 - 1951):
• 7 Schoenberg: Phantasy 08:20
• Total Runtime 01:02:50

Info for Transformations

Die amerikanische Geigerin Elizabeth Chang hat auf ihrem neuen Album Transformations bei Albany Records Werke von Leon Kirchner (1919-2009), Roger Sessions (1896-1985) und Arnold Schönberg (1874-1951) vereint.

Wie aus dem Pressetext ersichtlich ist, geht es dabei um Lehrer-Studenten-Beziehungen. Chang war an der Harvard Universität eine Studentin von Leon Kirchner. Kirchner seinerseits studierte sowohl mit Sessions als auch mit Schönberg.

Das Programm beginnt mit Kirchners Zweitem Duo für Violine und Klavier aus dem Jahre 2002. Es ist ein modernes, teils quirliges, teils aber auch sehr zart-lyrisches Stück, das Elizabeth Chang und Steven Beck mit höchstem Engagement intensiv spielen, wobei die Violinistin immer wieder mit hinreißender Kantabilität begeistert.

Die viersätzige Solosonate für Violine von Roger Sessions ist dem Komponisten zufolge « rhapsodisch ». Der erste Satz ist von fragilem Lyrismus, der zweite und das Finale sind virtuos und brillant, während das Adagio in der Interpretation von Elisabeth Chang berückend zärtlich wird, wie ein modernes Wiegenlied.

Chang und der Cellist Alberto Parrini spielen das Duo für Violine und Cello von Robert Sessions mit echtem Flair und Engagement. Wie Sessions’ Duo ist auch Schönbergs Phantasie für Violine mit Klavierbegleitung op. 47 (1949) das letzte Kammermusikwerk des Komponisten. Die dodekaphone Komposition ist virtuos und manchmal echt tänzerisch, dabei im Violinpart technisch richtig herausfordernd. Doch Elizabeth Chang meistert dies brillant und elegant zugleich, wobei sich ihr Spiel für meine Ohren angenehm von dem weitaus forscheren Zugriff eines Gidon Kremer abhebt.

Und so zieht sich die Linie der exzellenten Interpretationen durch ein Programm der Veränderungen… (Remy Franck, pizzicato.lu)

Elizabeth Chang, Violine
Steven Beck, Klavier
Alberto Parrini, Cello

Elizabeth Chang
enjoys a multi-faceted career as performer, teacher, and arts administrator. Her performing career has taken her to more than twenty countries and her chamber music appearances have included collaborations with many of today's leading artists. She is currently Professor of Violin at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a member of the violin and viola faculties of the Pre-College Division of the Juilliard School. In the summers she serves on the faculties of Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival and Brancaleoni International Music Festival in Italy.

Chang is Artistic Director and co-founder of the Lighthouse Chamber Players (Cape Cod) as well as co-founder and co-organizer of the Five College New Music Festival, the UMass Amherst Bach Festival and Symposium and Musique de Chambre en Val Lamartinien (Burgundy, France). She also co-founded the NYU Intensive Quartet Workshop and The School for Strings Intensive Chamber Music Workshop.

Chang has worked with a number of composers on new works for violin and including violin, most notably and extensively with Salvatore Macchia, Eric Sawyer, and Lewis Spratlan. Prior to her appointment to UMass, Chang toured and recorded extensively with the Orchestra of St. Luke's and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and performed with a number of new music groups based in New York City. She was formerly an Artist Faculty member of New York University and of the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Chang was a violin student of Louise Behrend, Joseph Fuchs, Roman Totenberg, and Max Rostal, and worked extensively with Leon Kirchner and Luise Vosgerchian. She is a graduate of Harvard College and was a recipient of the Presidential Scholar in the Arts award.

Steven Beck
A recent New York concert by pianist Steven Beck was described as “exemplary” and “deeply satisfying” by Anthony Tommasini in The New York Times. Beck is an experienced performer of new music, having worked with Elliott Carter, Pierre Boulez, Henri Dutilleux, Charles Wuorinen, George Crumb, George Perle, and Fred Lerdahl, and performed with ensembles such as Speculum Musicae and the New York New Music Ensemble. He is a member of the Knights, the Talea Ensemble, and the Da Capo Chamber Players. He is also a member of Quattro Mani, a piano duo specializing in contemporary music. As an orchestral musician he has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, the New York City Ballet Orchestra, Orpheus, the Mariinsky Orchestra and many others. Recent performances include “Carnival of the Animals” with the New York Philharmonic and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Princeton Symphony. Beck gives an annual Christmas Eve performance of Bach’s “Goldberg Variations” at Bargemusic; this has become a New York institution. Beck’s discography includes Peter Lieberson's third piano concerto (for Bridge Records) and a recording of Elliott Carter’s “Double Concerto” on Albany Records. He is a Steinway Artist.

Alberto Parrini
has toured North America, Europe and Asia with Mikhail Baryshnikov and the White Oak Dance Project and performed with Arco Ensemble, Concertante, Continuum, Mark Morris Dance Group, Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Mirror Visions, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Proteus Ensemble and Sinfonietta of Riverdale. His festival appearances include Evian, Tanglewood, Taos, Verbier, Ottawa, Montreal, San Miguel de Allende, Spoleto U.S.A., Music@Menlo, Windham, The Weekend of Chamber Music and the Piatigorsky seminar. He is principal cellist of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic and a member of the American Symphony and Orchestra of St. Luke’s He also performs regularly with East Coast Chamber Orchestra, Lenape Chamber Ensemble, Lighthouse Chamber Players, Richardson Chamber Players, New Jersey Symphony and New York Philharmonic. As a founding member of the Zukofsky Quartet he gave performances of the complete string quartets of Milton Babbitt in New York and Chicago. He performed throughout the U.S. with the American Chamber Players from 2004 to 2010, was the cellist of the St. Lawrence String Quartet in 2002-03 and spent one season as assistant principal cellist with the Richmond Symphony. His principal studies were with Timothy Eddy, Joel Krosnick, David Soyer, Colin Carr and Enrico Egano; he is a graduate of the Curtis Institute and the Juilliard School. Parrini teaches cello at Princeton University and at The College of New Jersey. In the summer, he teaches at Kinhaven Music School, where he is also co-director of the Adult Chamber Music Workshop.

Booklet for Transformations