Listening to two new discs that arrived months apart, I discovered that both were produced and engineered by Adam Abeshouse, who won a Grammy in 2000 for Classical Producer of the Year. The results speak for themselves.
A couple of astute friends sent me My New York Years, the new release from violinist Gary Levinson, with eager instructions to plunge immediately into the Martinů Three Madrigals for violin and viola. They were right. Levinson’s colleague here is Cynthia Phelps, principal violist with the New York Philharmonic, and the two of them sound sensational. Levinson reminds me somewhat of a young Gidon Kremer, and his focused sunlight melds superbly with Phelps’ dark velvet. What comes through even more strongly is a sense of playfulness as the two dart here and there, chasing each other down Martinů’s intertwining paths. The program includes two short Mozart sonatas (K. 46D and 46E) with Levinson’s father Eugene (the Philharmonic’s principal bass), Beethoven’s String Trio in D Major, Op. 9 (with Phelps and the orchestra’s first-chair cellist Carter Brey), and a sensuous performance of Prokofiev’s popular Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2, with Tatiana Goncharova as the fleet pianist.
Anyone who has dipped into the enormous new music scene in New York has probably experienced the virtuosic energy of Bridget Kibbey, whose focus on contemporary harp often serves up revelatory listening. Her solo debut, Love is Come Again, includes André Caplet’s two Divertissements, Elliot Carter’s Bariolage, works by Britten and Tailleferre, and the world premiere recording of Every Lover is a Warrior by Kati Agócs. Given the stereotypical image of harp music as somewhat benign, I imagine some listeners will be unprepared for the tingling electricity here. Coincidentally, the same friends who sent the Levinson CD were with me when we heard Kibbey in the Carter piece at the Knitting Factory a few years ago. Her technique, coupled with insight beyond her years, made a gripping six minutes that we recalled for months afterward.
[Photos from www.garylevinson.com and www.bridgetkibbey.com]
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