Stella Chen: Stella x Schubert
Platoon

Partnering with pianist Henry Kramer, American violinist Stella Chen mesmerizes on her debut album, Stella x Schubert. No doubt the loaned 1700 ex-Petri Stradivarius violin on which she performs has something to do with it, but there's no denying the beauty of her playing on the forty-six-minute release. The combination of her gleaming tone and staggering technique makes for music that commands attention at every moment; that the album, recorded in September 2022 at Abeshouse Productions in Westchester, New York and produced by Adam Abeshouse, features an all-Schubert programme doesn't hurt in that regard either.

Though it's early in her career, Chen has already amassed a number of accolades, including a first-prize win at the 2019 Queen Elizabeth International Violin Competition, a 2020 Avery Fisher Career Grant, and 2020 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award. She's given concerto, recital, and chamber music performances in the United States and Europe, and her chamber music partners have included James Ehne and Itzhak Perlman, the latter a mentor; Chen earned her doctorate at the Juilliard School where she's currently a teaching assistant to another mentor, Li Lin. Chen's playing is distinguished by unerring intonation, articulation, and vibrato control, and the deftness with which she segues between fortissimo and pianissimo passages impresses too. She also couldn't have asked for a more attentive accompanist than Kramer, whose sensitive playing complements her throughout and who, like Chen, has performed widely and been honoured with a significant number of awards.

In illuminating liner notes, Chen writes of her deep love for Schubert's music and his extraordinary capacity for expressing emotion in musical form. The greater share of the text is devoted, naturally, to the material she and Kramer perform on the release, with Chen arguing vociferously that the composer's duo repertoire for violin and piano has been criminally undervalued—“a heartbreaking misconception,” in her estimation. By way of illustration she documents the reception Schubert's four-part Fantasie in C Major, D.934 received upon its 1828 premiere, with one critic calling it “objectionable” and another opining that the composer “has frankly gone off the rail here.” It's hardly the first time a work has been initially dismissed and then embraced later, even if in this case the work was largely ignored by performers and scholars alike during the following century. Of course, the best possible argument she can make on its behalf lies in her performance, and certainly she and Kramer do much to support her conviction. (Her affection for the work extends beyond performance, incidentally, as it was also the primary focus of her doctoral dissertation.)

Before the Fantasie, however, the duo treat Schubert's Rondo in B minor, D.895 to a riveting, fourteen-minute performance. The work begins tempestuously, Chen asserting her presence immediately with bold flourishes before the music abruptly pivots to an episode of disarming beauty. Soon enough we're treated to examples of her pure, singing tone and virtuosic command, the latter shown in a series of devilish, rollercoaster-like runs. The performance often plays like a breathless romp through open country fields and the feeling of joy infectious in the extreme. As captivating is the Fantasie, which ultimately registers more as a singular entity despite being divided into four sections. After the work begins with an almost “Ave Maria”-like expression, Chen elevates it with lyrical, trill-enhanced phrasings that oscillate between rapture and heartbreak. An almost gypsy-like flavour permeates the effervescent second movement, whose challenging acrobatics she and Kramer execute with passion. Following that gripping episode, the work's long third movement calls forth some of the album's most tender (and imaginative) playing when the chamber duo grapples with the composer's theme-and-variations handling of the song “Sei mir gegrüßt.” In the “Andantino,” Kramer assumes an even more prominent role than he does elsewhere, even in places taking the lead as Chen plucks alongside. Returning to the high-spiritedness of the second movement is the closing “Allegro vivace,” which resolves the work on a rousing, celebratory note.

June 2023