Violinist Elizabeth Chang Releases New Album 'Sonatas & Myths' With Pianist Steven Beck

Sonatas and Myths, the new album from violinist Elizabeth Chang, is out now from Bridge Records.

Recorded with her longtime collaborator pianist Steven Beck, Sonatas and Myths features a collection of three seminal works from the early 20th century – Karol Szymanowski’s Mythes: Trois Poèmes, Op. 30 from 1915; Ernst von Dohnányi’s Violin Sonata in C# Minor, Op. 21 from 1912; and Béla Bartók’s Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano from 1921. On Wednesday, June 5, Chang and Beck will celebrate the album’s release with a concert in New York at St John's in the Village (218 West 11th Street), performing music from Sonatas and Myths plus additional selections by Max Reger, Igor Stravinsky, and Bela Bartók. Tickets are available now.

Sonatas and Myths portrays the profound teacher/student relationships from Chang’s artistic heritage, reflecting the influences and deep cross-generational connections between these composers. She explains, “I trace my connection to these composers through Carl Flesch, the great violin pedagogue who taught two of my teachers (Max Rostal and Roman Totenberg) and who was saved from deportation to a concentration camp by Dohnányi.”

Chang adds, “I have always had an artistic affinity for the musical language of the early 20th century and for the composers who were negotiating the end of the Romantic period while seeking to integrate their highly evolved, Germanic-based schooling with the influence of newly uncovered ‘local’ influences and idioms. The Central European composers of the three works in this album persuasively presented new compositional voices by means of writing that was highly charged emotionally and that, in this regard, provided continuity with the aesthetic expressive preoccupations of their recent past.”

Currently Professor of Violin at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a member of the violin faculty of the Pre-College Division of The Juilliard School, Chang enjoys an international career as performer, teacher, and leader in the arts, founding and leading a number of festivals and chamber music series in the U.S. and overseas.Her performances have taken her to 25 countries and her chamber music appearances have included collaborations with many of today's leading artists. In 2022, a Healey Faculty Research Grant from UMass afforded her the opportunity to record this album, which had been a cherished project plan for some time.

There are abundant connections between the composers on the album. In addition to being musical contemporaries, Polish modernist Karol Szymanowski and Hungarian composer and scholar of folk music Béla Bartók also share a bond through Claude Debussy, whose music resonated with them both. French influence echoes from the title of Szymanowski’s Mythes: Trois Poèmes pour violon et piano, Op. 30 but connection with the culture and folklore of ancient Greece during visits to Siciliy became an even more meaningful and personal influence on the composer and his music. In Mythes: Trois Poèmes, Szymanowski incorporates an array of compositional techniques and violinistic effects to bring the stories, the fantastical characters, and their various emotional motivations to life.

Hungarian pianist, composer and conductor Ernst von Dohnányi, only a a few years older than Bartók and Szymanowski, wrote his Violin Sonata in C# Minor, Op. 21 in 1912, when he was already established as a leading composer and teaching at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik – at his appointment in 1905, he was the school’s youngest and highest paid faculty member. While he never made a decisive break from Romanticism, the second movement of his violin sonata contains notable influence from Hungarian folk idioms.

Béla Bartók began by following in Dohnányi’s footsteps but soon changed course. David E. Schneider writes in the album’s liner notes, “Bartók was also deeply influenced by Eastern-European folk music, which he collected, studied, and arranged, as well as by contemporary modernist composers such as Schoenberg and Stravinsky.” Ironically, Bartok’s first sonata does not convey as much influence from folk music as one might expect. Schneider writes, “The First Sonata marks a high point in the complexity of Bartók’s style. Although written at a time when Bartók was integrating elements of folk music into all his compositions, only the third movement conveys a mood that can be easily identified as folk-like. . . The dominant mood is that of an ecstatic folk fiddler leading a rustic peasant dance. Such folk-dance finales would become a signature for Bartók, who used them in the majority of his mature instrumental works.”

Sonatas and Myths conveys a blend of technical prowess, historical appreciation, imagination, and unique insights that together create a journey propelled by personal resonance and tangible bonds between past and present.

Track List:
Sonatas and Myths
Elizabeth Chang, Violin; Steven Beck, Piano

Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937): Mythes: Trois Poèmes, Op. 30 (1915) [17:47]

1. La Fontaine d’Arethuse [4:39]
2. Narcisse [6:20]
3. Dryades et Pan [6:48]

Ernst von Dohnányi (1877–1960): Violin Sonata in C# Minor, Op. 21 (1912) [16:03]

4. Allegro appassionato [5:48]
5. Allegro ma con tenerezza [4:05]
6. Vivace assai [6:10]

Béla Bartók (1881–1945): Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano (1921) [32:02]

7. Allegro appassionato [12:01]
8. Adagio [9:58]
9. Allegro [10:03]

Total Time: [66:00]

Produced and Engineered by Ryan Streber
Edited and Mastered by Ryan Streber
Assistant Engineer and Editor: Charles Mueller
Recorded May 30-June 1, 2023, at Oktaven Audio, Mount Vernon, NY
Annotator: David E. Schneider
Graphic Design: Casey Siu
Executive Producers: Becky & David Starobin
Liner Notes: David E. Schneider

This recording was made possible by the generous support of the University of Massachusetts Amherst Faculty Research/Healey Endowment Grant.

About Elizabeth Chang

Violinist Elizabeth Chang enjoys an international career as performer, teacher, and leader in the arts. Her performing career has taken her to 25 countries and her chamber music appearances have included collaborations with many of today's leading artists. She is professor of violin at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, a member of the violin faculty of the Pre-College Division of the Juilliard School, and Artistic Director of Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival. Previously she served on the faculties of New York University and Rutgers University. She has embraced leadership roles in the arts and is founder and director of numerous festivals, including the Five College New Music Festival, UMass Bach Festival and Symposium, Lighthouse Chamber Players, and Long River Concerts. Ms. Chang has a long-standing commitment to the performance of the music of our time and has commissioned over 50 works for violin, violin and piano, and violin duo. She is a graduate of Harvard University and was the recipient of the Presidential Scholar in the Arts Award.

About Steven Beck

A recent New York concert by pianist Steven Beck was described as “exemplary” and “deeply satisfying” by The New York Times. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School. Mr. Beck made his concerto debut with the National Symphony Orchestra. His annual Christmas Eve performance of Bach’s Goldberg Variations at Bargemusic has become a New York institution. As an orchestral musician he has appeared with the New York Philharmonic and Orpheus. Mr. Beck is an experienced performer of new music, having worked with Elliott Carter, Pierre Boulez, Henri Dutilleux, Charles Wuorinen, George Crumb, George Perle, and Fred Lerdahl. He is a member of The Knights, the Talea Ensemble, Quattro Mani, and the Da Capo Chamber Players. His discography includes George Walker’s piano sonatas for Bridge Records, and Elliott Carter’s Double Concerto on Albany Records. He is a Steinway Artist and is on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

To post a comment, you must register and login.