Itamar Zorman, violin
Ieva Jokubaviciute & Kwan Yi, Piano
Julia Thompson, Tambourine
Release date: June 3rd, 2022
Grazyna BACEWICZ (1909–1969)
Oberek No. 1 (1949)
Moshe ZORMAN (1952–)
Wanderings (1994)
Joseph ACHRON (1886–1943)
Children’s Suite, Op. 57 (c. 1925) (arr. Jascha HEIFETZ (1901–1987))
Dora PEJAČEVIĆ (1885–1923)
Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 43, “Slavonic Sonata” (1917)
Silvestre REVUELTAS (1899–1940)
Afilador (1924)
Tierra p’a las macetas (1924)
Ali OSMAN (1958–2017)
Afromood (2010)
Gao PING (1970–)
Questioning the Mountains (2008)
Gareth FARR (1968–)
Wakatipu (2009)
Erwin SCHULHOFF (1894–1942)
Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2 (1927)
William Grant STILL (1895–1978)
Summerland (1935)
Violin Odyssey is the result of my lifelong interest in expanding the violin repertoire, combined with the specific conditions of 2020. Not being able to travel, I started an online series called Hidden Gems, focusing on lesser known repertoire from all over the world. I chose pieces in whose artistic merit I believed strongly, and thought that they deserved to be better known. The broadcast combined a live performance of the piece in question, together with a discussion with an expert in that repertoire. I was speaking “on air” with people from around the world, from China, to Croatia and Mexico, thus allowing me to keep at least a bit of my usual “globetrotting” self, without boarding on a plane. While the repertoire and the experts were global, my musical collaborators had to be local. Thankfully, I was lucky to have such wonderful pianists and friends as Ieva Jokubaviciute and Kwan Yi living within a driving distance away, not to mention my wife, pianist Liza Stepanova, who played with me in the earlier broadcasts. While at first I was streaming from my house in Athens GA, later on the project also helped me become familiar with other musical institutions around where we live, such as the Charlotte Steinway Gallery, or the Sigal Music Museum in Greenville SC, where we recorded some of the later broadcasts.
After nearly half a year, I had at my fingertips 10 pieces, which I thought could be the foundation for an interesting and unusual CD. I particularly enjoyed the number 10 under these particular circumstances, because of the association with Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron, where 10 people flee the plague to tell ten stories for ten days. The wide geographical origins of the repertoire on the CD (Israel, Croatia, China, Poland, New Zealand, Mexico, USA, Sudan, Czech-Republic and Russia), as well as noticeable stylistic variety, were the origins of the name “Violin Odyssey” - a journey within the violin literature.
Two larger works set the framework of the CD - Dora Pejacevic’s Slavonic Sonata and Erwin Schulhoff’s Second Sonata for Violin and Piano. These are two particularly dramatic works, and it made sense to add shorter pieces around them. The shorter pieces all have evocative titles, perhaps like little adventures and encounters on the traveler’s route.
Moshe Zorman’s Wandering sets the scene for the journey.
Joseph’s Achron’s Children’s Suite is a collection of miniature “Scenes from childhood”, from a March of Toys to Birdies chirping. Il Afilador and Tierra p’a las macetas by Silvestre Revueltas are encounters with street vendors in Mexico, in which one hears their cries as well as the sharpening wheel.
Grazyna Bacewicz’s Oberek no. 1 is an exhilarating fast Polish folk dance.
Gao Ping’s Questioning the Mountains ponders over a Szechuan song over the tragic circumstances of an earthquake. Ali Osman’s Afromood combines African rhythms with Jazz influences to produce a humor-filled dance
Gareth Farr’s Wakatipu is inspired by an old Maori folk tale about lake Wakatipu rising and receding. William Grant Still’s Summerland is a vision of of beauty in the afterlife.
I am so thankful to David Murphy and First Hand Records for taking on this project, as well as producer Judith Sherman, who guided us through this vast amount of repertoire with assurance, patience and plenty of good suggestions. I would especially like to thank the two pianists on the album, Ieva Jokubaviciute and Kwan Yi (and special guest, percussionist Julia Thompson), for embarking on this unusual journey with me.