Description

Exciting Eastern-European duets with brilliant cellist Wendy Warner

Track Listing

http://media.rachelbartonpine.com/audio/07/RachelBartonPine_WendyWarner_Martinu_Duo_No._2_excerpt.mp3
Martinu: Duo No. 2 (1958)

http://media.rachelbartonpine.com/audio/07/RachelBartonPine_WendyWarner_Schulhoff_Duo_excerpt.mp3
Schulhoff: Duo (1925)

http://media.rachelbartonpine.com/audio/07/RachelBartonPine_WendyWarner_Ravel_Sonata_excerpt.mp3
Ravel: Sonata (1922)

http://media.rachelbartonpine.com/audio/07/RachelBartonPine_WendyWarner_Kodaly_Duo_excerpt.mp3
Kodály: Duo, Op. 7 (1914)

About

CEDILLE RECORDS: CDR 90000 047
DOUBLE PLAY: TWENTIETH CENTURY DUOS FOR VIOLIN AND CELLO
RACHEL BARTON PINE, VIOLIN
WENDY WARNER, CELLO

Recorded December 1-4,9-10,1998 at WFMT Chicago
Producer: James Ginsburg
Engineer: Bill Maylone
Microphones: Schoeps MK21
Front Cover Photography: Nesha and Kumiko Fotodesign
Graphic Design: Cheryl A Boncuore

Personal Note

Wendy Warner and I began playing chamber music together in 1985 at the Music Institute of Chicago (formerly the Music Center of the North Shore) when I was 10 and she was 12. From the beginning, we enjoyed rehearsing and performing together. We quickly became fast friends and continued to play in string quartets until the end of high school. In 1988, our group, the Diller String Quartet, won first prize in the Junior Division of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. The two of us had as much fun jamming on the last movement of the Prokofiev Quartet No. 2 as we had acting silly at our hotel afterwards.

After high school, Wendy went off to Curtis (in Philadelphia) and eventually settled in New York City. As each of us participated in international competitions and launched solo careers, we always kept in touch. We were reunited in 1996 to perform the Brahms Double at the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago. While each of us had grown musically over the years, playing together was so natural that it seemed as though we had never spent the time apart.

That performance inspired us to assemble a program of duos for violin and cello. The Ravel and Kodaly, two of the most famous compositions for this combination of instruments, were obvious choices. After reading both of Martinu’s Duos, we agreed that No. 2 was so energetic and optimistic that we had to include it. Wendy introduced me to composer Erwin Schulhoff, and I became a fan immediately. His Duo for violin and cello had been recorded with others of his works, but never with other violin/cello compositions. We were very excited about presenting it among the more famous works in this genre, as it more than holds its own.

It’s a great pleasure to share with you this joyful collaboration with one of my best friends and favorite musicians.

Press

“[Rachel Barton and Wendy Warner] are major virtuosos who collaborate like best friends… The players’ coordination and virtuosity are reminiscent of those of the best string quartets of today (think Emerson), and the generous program is vividly recorded. A superb disc in every respect. Encore!”
Editorial Review – Amazon.com

“Barton and Warner [play] this demanding music with virtuosity, virility, and the ability to play an accelerando that really goes over the top… Their Ravel balances lyricism with technical brilliance in a performance that rivals Jaime Laredo and Yo-Yo Ma.”
American Record Guide – International Record Review

“The musical communication between “childhood friends” Rachel Barton and Wendy Warner results in a natural, brilliantly effective dialog… Their partnership is a generous, equal one: and their timbres are ideally matched… musicianship of mature insight, hair-raising electricity, and intense involvement… Unhesitatingly recommended.”
Fanfare

A January 2000 Strad Selection
“flair and imagination… intelligently realized… energetic and intensely passionate… brilliantly conveyed… a most distinguished enterprise.”
The Strad

“There is a lot of energy on this disc, a lot of virtuosic intensity and yet when gentleness and something lovely and tender is called for, Ms. Barton and Ms. Warner are meltingly warm and soulful. If you like chamber music for string instruments, you couldn’t ask for anything better than this CD.”
Red Magazine

Fan Comments

Here is a fine presentation of four duos for violin and cello (think of opera duets for soprano and contralto) that are seldom if ever heard in concerts or on other recordings. We have here Martinu’s “Duo No. 2,” Schulhoff’s “Duo,” Ravel’s “Sonata,” and Kodaly’s “Duo, Op 7” played lovingly by Rachel Barton (v.) and Wendy Warner (c.). And it is a good thing that the producers and artists have chosen for this offering four different national temperaments to be represented. Highly recommended for the rarity of the selections as much as for the playing. – Frank Behrens (Amazon.com customer)