For the Record, Op. 303: Harlem Quartet; Darshan Trio; Yuuko Shiokawa

October 11, 2024, 1:36 PM · Welcome to "For the Record," Violinist.com's weekly roundup of new releases of recordings by violinists, violists, cellists and other classical musicians. We hope it helps you keep track of your favorite artists, as well as find some new ones to add to your listening!

The Harlem Quartet: Felix Umansky, Jaime Amador, Melissa White and Ilmar Gavilán; with pianist and composer Aldo Lopez Gavilan.

Havana Meets Harlem
Harlem Quartet
Ilmar Gavilán, violin
Melissa White, violin
Jaime Amador, viola
Felix Umansky, cello
Aldo Lopez Gavilan, piano, composer

The Harlem Quartet has collaborated with Cuban pianist and composer Aldo Lopez Gavilan to bring to life a variety of new works that honor Cuba’s myriad musical traditions, ranging from jazz and Afro-Cuban to contemporary and classical music. The collaboration reunites López-Gavilán with his older brother, violinist Ilmar Gavilán, who left Cuba at age 14 and went on to co-found Harlem Quartet. This new project follows the 2021 documentary Los Hermanos/The Brothers, which tells the story of Aldo and Ilmar, tracking their shared childhood, their momentous first performances together, and their parallel lives as musicians. BELOW: Trailer for the album:

Mosaic
Darshan Trio
Vijay Gupta, violin
Dominic Cheli, piano
Yoshika Masuda, cello

The LA-based Darshan Trio is committed to immersing their audiences in the power of music by creating musical prisms that illuminate works in dynamic ways. They have coined the term "mosaic program" for concerts that juxtapose eclectic movements against each other, revealing their inherent similarities, evoking new discoveries - and creating new ways of seeing, hearing, and experiencing the relationships between music across time, culture, and composition. This program contains works by Reena Esmail, Arvo Part, Felix Mendelssohn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Peteris Vasks, Francois Couperin, Maurice Ravel and Clara Schumann. BELOW: "Mosaic" - Live at University of Southern California

Brahms & Schumann
Yuuko Shiokawa, violin
András Schiff, piano

After tackling the sonatas for violin and piano of Bach, Busoni and Beethoven in 2017, violinist Yuuko Shiokawa and pianist András Schiff return with a new recording of Brahms’ Violin Sonata No. 1 and Schumann’s Violin Sonata No. 2. Brahms’s First Violin Sonata in G majorincorporates motifs from his two songs "Regenlied" (Rain Song) and "Nachklang" (Lingering Sound) in its final movement. In his liner note, Wolfgang Stähr notes how "Brahms adopts not only the theme, but also the 'rainy,' onomatopoeic, dripping piano accompaniment. He had given these two poetically and melodically linked songs to his lifelong friend Clara Schumann for her 54th birthday." Robert Schumann completed his Sonata in D minor almost 30 years prior, in 1851, and it was premièred by Clara Schumann and Joseph Joachim in 1853 – the link between Clara Schumann and Brahms kept well maintained. That same year, Brahms and Schumann, together with Albert Dietrich, composed the collaborative F-A-E Sonata, whose c minor scherzo, contributed by Brahms, was most likely inspired by the second movement in b minor of this Schumann sonata. BELOW: Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 1 in G Major, Op. 78: III. Allegro molto moderato.

If you have a new recording you would like us to consider for inclusion in our "For the Record" feature, please e-mail Editor Laurie Niles. Be sure to include the name of your album, a link to it and a short description of what it includes.

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For the Record, Op. 303: Harlem Quartet; Darshan Trio; Yuuko Shiokawa

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