CONNECTIONS
MAR427
Connie Shih
Winona Zelenka
$16.98
"A beautiful album... ...a satisfyingly textured programme that allows both cellist and pianist to show off their elegant musicianship. Zelenka teases a seemingly infinite range of sounds from her bow, and both artists display a deceptively easy virtuosity. This record very much deserves to be on any cello lover's playlist." - John Terauds, Musical Toronto, June 2012
This recording is about connections. All four featured composers lived in Paris during the second half of the 19th century and were linked both professionally and personally.
Franck's great Sonata is like capturing and portraying a life in sound. The first movement is a languid, delicate introduction, with only hints of the ecstasy yet to come. The second movement, with its restless virtuosic piano writing, speaks of the passion of youth, full of angst and yearning. The third movement is a contemplative discourse in which moments of quiet desperation balance moments of celestial beauty. The fourth movement is a mature epilogue, growing in joy and excitement until the glorious, triumphant ending.
The Debussy Sonata is short, with abrupt and daring changes in mood and colour. Ideas appear and morph so quickly from one emotional state to the next that one is left withnly fleeting impressions.
Chausson's Piéce is a little gem. It's an extremely beautiful and wistful late work - one which needs space to breathe and to sing. Fauré's Papillon, by comparison, is a lightning-fast piece where images seem to appear and disappear - like a mirage.
Winona Zelenka is one of Canada's finest cellists, known for her gorgeous, luminous tone and expressive brilliance. She electrifies audiences with her impeccable musicality, superb technique and elegant style. "Some of the most beautiful singing… came from the cello of Winona Zelenka. Her opening solo…was breathtaking - floating with effortless musicality." - National Post
Connie Shih is considered one of Canada’s most outstanding artists. As soloist, she has appeared extensively with orchestras and solo recitals throughout Canada, U.S. and Europe, Japan and China.
Catalog: MAR 427
J.S. Bach: Six Suites for Solo Cello
Winona Zelenka
2-CD set
$19.98
"Canadian cellist Winona Zelenka gives Bach’s solo cello suites a stylish ease that we don’t often hear on modern cello. Sarabandes sound like graceful dances, not constipated sacred cows, and Zelenka’s modest vibrato and tasteful use of open strings give her access to affects that sometimes get left behind – reflection, say, or melancholy – for more intense ones, especially in slow movements." - Elissa Poole, Globe & Mail
This two-CD release reflects Winona Zelenka's exploration of the Bach six unaccompanied Cello Suites. In some ways the journey has been typical of a cellist of her generation: from the ultra-romanticism of Casals, to the modernist logic of Starker, to a European school that has been more open to historical performance practice.
In her search for Bach's intellectual and emotional meaning, Winona presents a powerful and expressive performance that is both true to the composer and uniquely her own.
Winona Zelenka is one of Canada's finest cellists, known for her gorgeous, luminous tone and expressive brilliance. She electrifies audiences with her impeccable musicality, superb technique and elegant style. "Some of the most beautiful singing… came from the cello of Winona Zelenka. Her opening solo…was breathtaking - floating with effortless musicality." - National Post
The cello used in this recording was made in 1707 by Joseph Guarnerius of Cremona, Italy. The Cremonese instruments of this period are considered the summit of achievement and this Guarneri proves the rule. It is known for its rich magnificent tone.
Catalog: MAR 509
French Flute Chamber Music
Since they deserve to be named, the Mirage Quintet is: Robert Aitken, flute; Erica Goodman, harp; Jacques Israelivitch, violin; Teng Li, viola, and Winona Zelenka, cello. All of these players have the Toronto Symphony as their common denominator at some point in time. This superb disc explores the music of the early 20th-century French school, a cast of remarkably unified yet simultaneously divergent composers who all felt the influences of Debussy and Ravel, though I think it a mistake to overdue that consideration.
While the two aforementioned giants did of course exercise a profound influence, each of the composers listed are in no way carbon-copy “impressionist” clones by any stretch of the imagination. The closest to that category in my listening is Tournier, whose Suite is quite Ravel-like in substance and linear melody, reminding me of his String Quartet. Florent Schmitt will be known to most people, studying under Faure and Debussy, and his Suite also shows some connections to Debussy’s aesthetic, but only just—he was still his own man and at least in this work was more classically concerned than his mentor.
Gabriel Pierne is familiar to many who play wind instruments, a typically Gallic composer with a great concern for clarity, wit, and stylistic congruity. These Variations are a perfect example of his art, succinct, clear as a bell, and rather rambunctious. Speaking of wit, no French composer had more of it than Jean Francaix, perhaps the quintessentially urbane classicist with a penchant for the madcap. Though he has been criticized, not without some justification, of “sameness” in his music, there are many pieces that completely avoid this appellation and demonstrate a profound sense of irony, drollness, sentimentality, and wistfulness, and this Quintet is one of them. Albert Roussel is the neoclassical composer par excellence, and this Serenade shows him in fine fashion, orderly and always looking back with a language that is distinctly modern—at least it was then.
The Mirage Quintet plays just beautifully, rich, warm tone, and with a quietly finessed sense of ensemble unanimity. The rather cavernous acoustics of St Anne’s Anglican Church in Toronto are captured brilliantly on this recording, truly a marvel of elegance and a testament to Engineer Norbert Craft’s expertise. Highest recommendation then, an album that is guaranteed to bring much pleasure.