Tasmin Little Plays Clara Schumann, Dame Ethel Smyth & Amy Beach
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AMY MARCY CHENEY BEACH / CLARA SCHUMANN / DAME ETHEL SMYTH
Tasmin Little Plays Clara Schumann, Dame Ethel Smyth & Amy Beach
Tasmin Little (violin) / John Lenehan (piano)
[ Chandos / CD ]
Release Date: Friday 1 February 2019
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The renowned violinist and exclusive Chandos artist Tasmin Little returns with a line-up of three women composers whose lives share some features but also significant differences that illustrate the complex lives of female musicians.
Clara Schumann, Dame Ethel Smyth, and Amy Beach all came from families that encouraged their musical interests but balked, in varying degrees, at professional training and engagement. All three composers draw on the influence of Robert Schumann and Brahms; Beach and Smyth, in particular, were fond of metrical and motivic manipulation.
Tasmin Little plays this music, so close to her heart, with her usual warmth and dexterity. The manuscript of Clara Schumann's final chamber work, Three Romances, declares it 'for piano and violin', an ordering reflected in the relative complexity of the parts, the florid passagework here played beautifully by Little's long-term collaborator, John Lenehan.
"…This delightful, beautifully performed album by Tasmin Little and John Lenehan makes an emphatic, seemingly effortless case for their music for violin & piano; presenting all but one of Beach's works in the genre alongside Smyth and Schumann's singe contributions…" BBC Music Five Stars
"Neither [the Beach or the Smyth], surely, has ever been treated to anything like Little's gleaming, endlessly fluid tone or John Lenehan's warmly characterised, unfailingly sensitive pianism…there's a flexibility and sense of sweep to Little and Lenehan's performance [of the Beach] that's utterly persuasive on its own terms. The two players respond to each other as if by instinct." Gramophone Editor's Choice March 2019
"Throughout this recording Tasmin Little and John Lenehan are in excellent form, their choices of tempi, though some might find them a little too fast and forceful at times, are intelligent and certainly bring the best out of this wonderful music. They are helped by Chandos' usual brilliant recorded sound and sympathetic acoustic at Potton Hall, as well as excellent booklet notes, with the result being a disc that will certainly be a front runner in my deliberations for my choice for Recording of the Year." Recommended Recording MusicWeb March 2019
Tracks:
AMY MARCY CHENEY BEACH
Sonata, Op.34 (1896)
CLARA SCHUMANN
Drei Romanzen, Op.22 (1853)
DAME ETHEL SMYTH
Sonata, Op.7 (c.1887)
AMY MARCY CHENEY BEACH
Romance, Op.23 (1893)
Invocation, Op.55 (1904)
