Violinist Jennifer Koh (last heard with the Oregon Symphony in performances of the Brahms Violin Concerto, and before that the Szymanowski 1st Violin Concerto) has a new solo recording out on Cedille Records, entitled Rhapsodic Musings. It features works by Elliot Carter, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Augusta Read Thomas, and John Zorn for solo violin. Based upon her performances with my orchestra and her previous recording (also on Cedille, String Poetic), it’s something that any fan of the violin and newer music will greatly enjoy (especially as a stocking stuffer…)
Excerpt of an interview from Sequenza 21:
S21: You’ve got quite a wide repertoire at your command, but when it’s come to recordings you haven’t gone with much in the way of the grand war-horses. The Szymanowski 1st is about as close as you’ve come, the rest delving back into lesser-known gems by Menotti, Martinu, Bartok… And then most recently lots of contemporary (and usually living) American and European composers. The pieces you choose — Higdon, Ruggles, Harrison, Salonen, Carter, Zorn — while often incredibly beautiful aren’t the stuff of easy crowd-pleasers. I get a bit of this feeling of you truly being taken deeply by something in each of these works, and bringing them to people almost like an excited kid shares their latest amazing discovery to their friends or parents. Am I getting warm here? …
JK: I just want to play music that I believe in! This is true for music that is known or unknown, new or old. When I play a piece, it means I will have lived with it in a very intimate and intense way for a long time and ultimately, I want to spend my life with music that I love and find meaningful. If I discover a piece of music that I think is incredible but is not very well known, I do become fervently dedicated to it because I think it SHOULD be known to everyone and I want to share it with as many people as possible! In the end, I don’t think I’m that different from the next person. I’m just another member of society and I hope that if I find a piece of music to be compelling and interesting, then it will speak to other people as well.