Album

For all the hand-wringing over the decline of classical music in the U.S., that country's publicly promient contemporary composers are increasingly gaining hearings around the world. This disc could serve anyone as an introduction to the music of John Corigliano, whose sympathetic treatment of the violin may derive from his status the son of a longtime New York Philharmonic Orchestra violinist. The "Music for Violin and Piano" subtitle of this disc is accurate only in a broad sense; after two duo works come a piece for piano solo and another for a solo violin. The program samples several aspects of Corigliano's output, from his youthful Sonata for violin and piano, very much in the vein of his conservative conservatory models, to a pair of works derived from the score for the Red Violin, which has been a profitable lode of music for the composer. The Fantasia on an Ostinato (1985) is more often heard in its orchestral version, and it takes a bit of mental adjustment to get the sound of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, on which the ostinato is based, out of one's head. However, this was the original version of the piece, and the music has a fine, minimal, hypnotic quality here. Both violinist Ida Bieler and pianist Nina Tichman are American-born and -trained but now live and teach in Germany, and both heed Corigliano's dictum, expressed in connection with the Fantasia but applicable elsewhere, that "color, variety, and imagination" are essential in the performance of his music. Tichman's performance of the Fantasia has an especially nice grasp of Corigliano's particular take on minimalism in that work, which is undeniably influenced by that movement but has a personal quality the performer must be careful not to lose. The recording by the Westdeutscher Rundfunk in Cologne is another plus.

© James Manheim, All Music Guide

CD 1
John Corigliano Composer Violin Sonata Work 21:43 Ida Biehler Violin, Nina Tichman Piano
1	1.Allegro	2:31			$0.99
2	2.Andantino	6:37			$0.99
3	3.Lento	4:42			$0.99
4	4.Allegro	7:53			$1.49
John Corigliano Composer Chaconne from The Red Violin, for violin and piano Work Ida Biehler Violin, Nina Tichman Piano
5	Chaconne from The Red Violin, for violin and piano	16:56			$2.99
John Corigliano Composer Fantasia on an Ostinato Work Nina Tichman Piano
6	Fantasia on an Ostinato	10:33			$1.99
John Corigliano Composer The Red Violin Caprices, for violin (from the film The Red Violin) Work 10:12 Ida Biehler Violin
7	Theme	1:39			$0.99
8	Variation 1: Presto	0:44			$0.99
9	Variation 2: Con bravura	2:46			$0.99
10	Variation 3: Adagio, languid	1:25			$0.99
11	Variation 4: Slowly con rubato	2:17			$0.99
12	Variation 5: Presto, pesante	1:21			$0.99