Shea-Kim Duo: All Roads
Blue Griffin Recording
On their second Shea-Kim Duo album, violinist Brendan Shea and pianist Yerin Kim perform material by Ludwig van Beethoven, Robert Schumann, Alfred Schnittke, and Amy Beach. The question immediately arises as to what connection could possibly be made between four such disparate composers, to which the married couple have a ready answer: “We wanted to present composers who were connected to Vienna in increasingly distant ways, like travelers along a long road.” No matter how far removed each artist is from that centre (American composer Beach the farthest), all four are indelibly tied to the Austrian capital through the enduring influence of Viennese culture. If any violin-and-piano outfit is capable of connecting the dots between such centuries-spanning material, it's Shea-Kim Duo, the recipient of bountiful praise over the course of its decade-long tenure.
Written in 1798 and dedicated to Antonio Salieri, Beethoven's three-part Sonata for Piano and Violin No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 12 introduces the recording with a zestful rendering, its scene-setting “Allegro con spirito” particularly engrossing. The music beguiles from the first moment, especially when the duo's instruments partner so sweetly and the movement's considerable technical challenges are met so convincingly. Rapid, spiraling runs are delivered in unison and in sequence with aplomb, but the slower passages are executed as memorably. The serene slow movement is, naturally, lyrical and heartfelt, and the initial statement by Shea is handled beautifully. Showing excellent control, he drapes softly singing lines across a delicate base until the spotlight's equally shared, the instruments in places trading phrases and in others voicing them as one. Radiant by comparison is the sunny finale, “Rondo: Allegro molto.” Spirits are high when the middle movement's melancholy is exchanged for exuberance and melodic charm.
Apparently drawn from his film scores, Schnittke composed his Suite in the Old Style for Violin and Piano in 1972. As its title intimates, its five parts pay homage to the past but with the irony that's sometimes part of the composer's work largely absent and in its place endearing, Baroque-style writing. That's made clear at the outset by the sincerity of the instantly appealing “Pastorale: Moderato” and the bright and playful “Ballet: Allegro.” Whereas the suite slows for the delicate melancholy of the central minuet, energy is reinstated the moment the fugue makes its authoritative entrance. Tender by comparison is the concluding “Pantomime: Andantino,” which the duo pitches at a stately, fragile hush.
The advent of Schumann's Sonata for Piano and Violin No. 1 in A minor, Op. 105 (1851) brings about a noticeable shift in tone. The composer indicated that the dramatic first movement should be played “with passionate expression,” and Shea-Kim Duo complies by investing his inwardly probing material with an intense outpouring of feeling. Buoyed by an enticingly yearning melody, the “Allegretto” softens the attack for a central movement marked by lyrical grace and a restless, searching quality. True to form, the finale returns the work to an energized state with both instruments driving determinedly towards the finish line. As the album approaches its end, it leaps four decades ahead with Beach's Romance for Violin and Piano, Op. 23, which was premiered (by Amy and the work's dedicatee, violinist Maud Powell) and published in 1893. There's no resisting the openhearted work's charm, especially when Shea is gifted such warm, singing lines to play. Its appearance at the album's close gives it something of an encore-like feel, and one could easily envision the couple sending concertgoers home on a memorable high with the choice. The four works performed are different in fundamental ways, of course, but Shea and Kim enliven each rendition with passion and conviction, the result stylish, effervescent, and charismatic performances of the highest rank.August 2023