Chausson, E.: Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Quartet / Faure, G.: Violin Sonata No. 1 (Ernest Chausson - Gabriel Faure)

Album review

American violinist Soovin Kim has chosen for the program of his fifth album two works from the French repertoire for his instrument. The first is Ernest Chausson's Concert in D major for violin, piano, and string quartet, a composition with which many listeners may be completely unfamiliar. While the piece is pleasant enough, it's also easy to see why it's not performed all that often. Given the arsenal of sounds available, Chausson resorts to part doubling and octaves more frequently than might be expected. The overall sonority leans heavily toward the treble end of the spectrum. For Kim, pianist Jeremy Denk, and the members of the Jupiter String Quartet, this is problematic. As an ensemble, the sound is already trebel-dominated; Chausson's scoring makes them sound downright shrill at times, resulting in an overall sound quality that can be less than pleasant on the ear. By contrast, the second work on the program -- Fauré's First Violin Sonata -- is quite well known and extensively recorded. Kim's technical and musical abilities cannot be doubted; his intonation is generally precise, as is his exemplary control of dynamics and phrasing. Here again, though, the composition favors the higher registers of the violin, and Kim struggles somewhat to produce a warm, consistently inviting tone in that portion of his instrument.
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