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Violinist Julie Rosenfeld and pianist Peter Miyamoto have produced a stunning CD for Albany Records, New Music for Violin and Piano, which is a must-own for professional violinists and collaborative pianists scouting fresh repertoire. Both artists are on the faculty at the University of Missouri School of Music-Columbia and have enjoyed extensive careers singly and more recently, as a duo.

When the College of Arts and Science at UM offered start up funds for a CD of original works to celebrate her joining the music faculty in 2014 Rosenfeld wasted no time, commissioning music from several composers she knows well including Kenneth Fuchs, Katherine Hoover, John Halle, Laura Kaminsky and Tamar Muskal. Rosenfeld also invited her new colleague Stefan Freund of the UM School of Music Composition and Music Theory faculty to contribute a piece to the project.

After additional funds were raised to cover costs including the superb sound engineering services of five-time GRAMMY Award-winning producer Judith Sherman, the first recording sessions began in April 2017. Released by Albany in 2018 the result is a wide-ranging and superbly eclectic set of six new masterpieces for violin and piano duo composed between 2014 and 2016.

Uniquely American in temperament and color Kenneth Fuchs’ Duo for Violin and Piano (2015) is alive with simple yet glorious imagery. A solo reverie for fiddle in the middle of the piece becomes nimbus - starlight, cosmos, infinity - then morphs with an increasingly intoxicating pulse and lilt into a joyous narrative of ecstasy; a significant, challenging and extremely beautiful new addition to the repertoire.

Dancing (2014) is Katherine Hoover’s three-movement contribution to Rosenfeld’s treasure trove of new music for violin and piano. Arabesque - its jazzy, casual canter belying deeper intension; Cortege - empowered by purposeful regret and poignant reminiscence, without doubt one of Hoover’s most beautiful sound miniatures and Stomp, a 21st century barn dance packed with dervish energy and a Rodeo finish elevate this piece to the category, fabulous!

John Halle’s Amen Choruses (2016) is immediately accessible to the listener, a gauzy jazz temperament lending subtle, gospel ambiance to its uplifting mission, while Laura Kaminsky’s Undercurrent (2015) scans the subconscious depths of the human psyche with mesmerizing colors hued in quarter tone malaise and propelled by pitch slides and ominous low chords on the piano. The piece occasionally reaches the bright surface but like the Gulf Stream, ultimately runs silent, swift and deep. An important if harrowing addition to the violin/piano duo pantheon.

Tamar Muskal’s Where Do We Belong? A Conversation with Bach (2015) is a complex cipher. Solo fiddle machinations, including pitch slides and harmonic anomalies remind us we are in the twenty-first century, but the composer also unambiguously harkens in spirit at least, to the solo partitas and sonatas of Bach. Where Do We Belong? is a kind of trans-century experience, exploring the violin temperament and colors Bach found so fascinating, while also shapeshifting without apology, to reflect a present and future aesthetic.

Life (Still) Goes on (2015) is Stefan Freund’s intriguing, episodic and ultimately hopeful homage not just to his father, but humankind and its quirky survivability. Somehow, despite often cataclysmic setbacks, the human pulse (literally) continues, bringing this wonderfully engineered and superbly performed disc full circle.

Considering all six works were commissioned specifically for violinist Rosenfeld and each is receiving its world premiere on this disc, the listener comes away satisfied the interpretations are definitive. Superb technical authority and a subtlety of collaborative ensemble playing between Rosenfeld and Miyamoto brings a bracing energy and excitement to these virtuoso new works.

Daniel Kepl | Performing Arts Review