Album

The violin sonatas of William Bolcom pose many challenges to violinists. For starters, the four sonatas were composed over a period of nearly four decades. As with any composer whose career continues uninterrupted over that span of time, many stylistic and technical changes occur in Bolcom's output and are immediately observable in the violin sonatas. Bolcom also draws on a great many different musical idioms from jazz to American folk music and Latin American dance styles. In this recording, violinist Irina Muresanu demonstrates her strength for nearly all of the demands Bolcom makes. Movements with elements of jazz are definitely her forte as she instantly transports listeners to a jazz club with her dark and sultry sound, effortles and appropriate glissandos, and stylized rhythmic panache. In movements where the violin is asked to put on more purely technical displays, Muresanu sometimes falters. Particularly in the Third Sonata, composed for Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Muresanu loses the sense of effortless music-making heard in the first and second sonatas. Still, the strengths outweigh the faults, and the result is still an acceptable collection of the complete violin sonatas.

© Mike D. Brownell, Rovi

CD 1
William Bolcom Composer Violin Sonata No.2 Work 16:49 Irina Muresanu Violin, Michael Lewin Piano
1	1.Summer Dreams	5:52			$0.99
2	2.Brutal, fast	1:52			$0.99
3	3.Adagio	5:27			$0.99
4	4.In Memory of Joe Venuti	3:38			$0.99
William Bolcom Composer Violin Sonata No.3 Work 19:10 Irina Muresanu Violin, Michael Lewin Piano
5	1.A piacere, drammatico. Allegro con fuoco	6:54			$0.99
6	2.Andante	5:07			$0.99
7	3.Like a shiver	1:00			$0.99
8	4.Moderato, risoluto, all'arabesca	6:09			$0.99
William Bolcom Composer Violin Sonata No.1 Work 20:12 Irina Muresanu Violin, Michael Lewin Piano
9	1.Legend	7:59			$1.49
10	2.Nocturne	3:11			$0.99
11	3.Quasi-Variations: Scenes From A Young Life	9:02			$1.49
William Bolcom Composer Violin Sonata No.4 Work 14:39 Irina Muresanu Violin, Michael Lewin Piano
12	1.Allegro brillante	3:01			$0.99
13	2.White Night	5:19			$0.99
14	3.Arabesque	2:39			$0.99
15	4.Jota	3:40			$0.99
William Bolcom Composer 3 Ghost Rags Work Irina Muresanu Violin, Michael Lewin Piano
16	1.Graceful Ghost Rag	5:19			$0.99