Charles Matthews, Julia Hwang – Subito (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:01:33 minutes | 1,03 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Signum Records
Subito: suddenly, or immediately. And something else besides – a moment of revelation or transformation, charged with surprise.
When Witold Lutoslawski gave this title to the showpiece that he wrote for a violin competition in Indianapolis in 1994, he evoked all these qualities, and more: that delighted astonishment; the brilliant, piercing moment of musical communion between performer and listener that comes with true virtuosity.
On her debut disc, Julia Hwang has taken that idea, of virtuosity as communication, and embraced it from four very different directions. Grieg’s Violin Sonata No. 3 blends virtuosity with traditions both local and international, to say something unambiguously personal. Vaughan Williams’ ‘The Lark Ascending’ refines violin technique into expression as pure as the song of a skylark. Lutoslawski’s ‘Subito’ creates a brief, dazzling moment whose very brilliance is its own meaning; and Henryk Wieniawski, entertainer par excellence, spins fantasy from another man’s tunes in his ‘Fantaisie brillante sur des motifs de l’Opéra Faust de Gounod’ – enriching them in the process.
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