Together

Albumbeschreibung

Italian-American violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg shows fresh thinking across the board in this excellent new release. It's unusual for a violinist of her stature to take the spotlight, at least ostensibly, off of herself and merge into a chamber group. The NSS label is her own new creation. And the program is entirely fresh. Salerno-Sonnenberg looks toward a future in which concert music neither ignores popular music nor aspires to be part of it. Each of the four works on the program draws on vernacular music in different ways. The opening Impressions, by Clarice Assad (a member of the endlessly creative Assad family of Brazil), is a sort of Brazilianized concerto for orchestra, composed with the explicit intent of showcasing the New Century Chamber Orchestra in various combinations. The Astor Piazzolla work here titled Four Seasons of Buenos Aires is actually a set of season-themed pieces that weren't originally intended as a set. They're played in a 1990s orchestration by Russian composer Leonid Desyatnikov that works in quotations from Vivaldi's Four Seasons. It's inventive enough; although the concept doesn't really hold up to examination, the rather busy conception of the work proves an effective showcase for the theater-of-equals idea Salerno-Sonnenberg is developing as both soloist and music director of the all-virtuoso NCCO. The version of Bartók's Romanian Folk Dances heard here is also an arrangement of sort; Salerno-Sonnenberg herself rewrites the solos so as to distribute them among various string players in the group. At the end, and only then, does Salerno-Sonnenberg step into the traditional soloist's role: in Jascha Heifetz's arrangement of "Bess, You Is My Woman Now," from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. As the work of a classical virtuoso who had the knack for connecting with broad popular audiences, that brings the entire program full circle and makes for a satisfying conclusion. The sound from Skywalker Studios beautifully showcases the details of the ensemble instrumental work. This disc, the first released by these combined forces, makes one eager to hear their future work, with the single caveat that this may prove a hard act to follow.
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