Fall Score

With a crisp feel to Saturday evening, I headed over to Gallery 345 for a classical recital. Talisa Blackman (piano) and Jane Yang (violin) were scheduled to play 3 violin sonatas. The small venue had a good turn-out for the young women.

The first piece was Prokofiev's Violin Sonata no. 2, Op. 94 which was based on his flute sonata. The 4 movement work had a modern feel reminiscent of a movie score with swooping melodies, triumphant marches, and sinister interludes. I was taken with the 3rd movement which had odd, atonal slides on the violin and the 4th whose processional passages harkened to the composer's Romeo and Juliet score.

The second piece was Violin Sonata no. 2, a piece composed by their friend Kevin Lau, who was recently appointed as an affiliate composer with the TSO. This work was also modern with atonal sounds and odd transitions. But it also included accessible elements from the Romantic tradition. There were parts where it reminded me of a Hitchcockian thriller.

After the intermission, Talisa and Jane played Strauss' Violin Sonata in Eb, Op. 18. You didn't have to tell me this work evokes the height of Romanticism, the vibrato violin lines and the shimmering piano runs made that quite obvious. The swelling music hinted at passionate emoting in 40s musical. Though the most accessible, its decadence was almost too much of a good thing, like eating a creme brule stuffed with truffle chocolate.