Duo Concertante (Nancy Dahn, violin & Timothy Steeves, piano) is celebrating practically three a long time of worldwide touring and performing with a brand new launch. Maier Franck Schumann: Violin Sonatas will likely be launched on the Delphian Information label on August 22.
The repertoire focuses on the Romantic sonata and its expressive potentialities.
Robert Schumann wrote his Sonata No. 1 in a mere 4 days in 1851. The work pushes the envelope with regards to notions of Classical restraint propriety. The emotional depth of the Sonata would show inspirational to generations of future composers.
Amanda Maier’s B minor Sonata was composed in 1874, and gained a prize from the Swedish Artwork Music Society. César Franck’s a lot beloved A serious Sonata rounds out the album.
Duo Concertante (Nancy Dahn, violin & Timothy Steeves, piano): The Interview
They’ve been a private {and professional} duo for many years. “I suppose 1998,” says Dahn. “That’s a very long time in the past.” It’s after they formally grew to become Duo Concertante, performing ensemble.
“On the very starting, we thought we’d begin out by studying the Beethoven Kreutzer Sonata. Why not begin with essentially the most tough?” she laughs.
Definitely, toughing it out over a tough piece could be a precursor to a great working relationship. As they started to tour and carry out collectively commonly, they agreed on a twin deal with normal repertoire and new music.
“It’s been a extremely wealthy expertise specializing in each,” Nancy provides.
The Duo has commissioned greater than 65 unique works from Canadian and worldwide composers over their profession as an ensemble, together with Chan Ka Nin, R. Murray Schafer, Kati Agócs, Andrew Staniland, Kelly-Marie Murphy, Alice Ho, Omar Daniel, Linda Bouchard, and Jean Lesage, amongst many others.
The Tuckamore Competition
The couple based the Tuckamore Chamber Music Competition, primarily based in St. John’s Newfoundland, in 2001. The 2025 version happened from June 23 to July 6. This system included 25 concert events unfold throughout 25 venues within the area.
“This 12 months, we celebrated our twenty fifth pageant. That was form of thrilling, 25 years,” Steven says.
They’ve expanded on their standard summer season programming to incorporate just a few extra concert events all through the season. “We’ve got an enormous academic pageant as effectively,” Steeves says. This 12 months’s cohort included 23 younger string gamers and pianists who labored with seasoned artists. He experiences that a few of these budding musical partnerships will end in excursions and performances later this 12 months.
“This 12 months, for the twenty fifth 12 months pageant, we actually went loopy,” Nancy provides. That included a further 37 concert events throughout your complete province, incorporating Labrador, and so far as Hopedale. “These actually distant communities,” she says. “Newfoundland is big. Simply attending to the opposite facet is 10 hours in your automotive. It was an effective way to have fun 25 years.”
A lot of these concert events have been essentially held in smaller venues, however they have been routinely stuffed with appreciative audiences.
“The audiences have been actually hungry to listen to classical,” Dahn says.
The Repertoire
The music on the album is available in half from their historical past of performing collectively.
“We’ve performed a few of these rather a lot,” Nancy notes. “The Franck Sonata — it’s been a pillar of our repertoire.”
“We’ve been enjoying the Schumann for about 20 or 25 years,” Steeves says.
“For me personally, I didn’t recognize the genius of Schumann till later in life,” Nancy provides. “It took me some time dwelling together with his work to acknowledge his uniqueness.”
The variations captured on the album are interpreted with years of expertise. Maier’s Sonata is the outlier.
“Maier may be very recent,” Timothy says. “Terrific piece. She was a superb violinist and an incredible composer.” As he factors out, and customary for the time, as soon as Amanda married and had youngsters, any skilled aspirations have been put aside. The Swedish violinist and composer died on the younger age of 41 in 1894.
Her work suits neatly between Schumann and Franck.
“It enhances the Schumann,” Timothy says.
Nancy notes that the work of the uncared for composer first got here to her consideration through a thesis that had been written on Maier. One among her violin college students at Memorial College discovered the Sonata.
“I mentioned to Tim, you already know, this can be a actually, actually nice piece,” Dahn remembers. “We play it rather a lot now.”
“It’s a extremely nice piano piece too,” Steeves provides. “The 2 devices work collectively actually, rather well. It’s actually thrilling to hearken to and a whole lot of enjoyable to play.”
“She wrote this piece when she was 23. It’s simply astounding,” says Nancy. “There’s already a extremely particular person voice there, a character.”
It’s one other of the growing variety of works which have been rediscovered and/or revived after generally centuries of neglect with regards to illustration within the conventional canon of classical music.
“It’s probably not true, the way in which we predict, that the items we’ve ended up at the moment are actually the best items, as a result of it hasn’t been a fair enjoying discipline in any respect,” Dahn states.
From a 2023 efficiency:
Beloved Franck
“I believe the Franck specifically — we’ve journeyed by way of the Franck.” As he factors out, César Franck’s Violin Sonata in A Main was written as a marriage current for virtuoso Eugène Ysaÿe in 1886.
The music is commonly interpreted as describing a long run relationship from early ardour to disillusionment to studying to stay collectively in concord.
“It’s all within the piece,” Nancy says.
It’s at all times been on their checklist of works to report, however it introduced some distinctive challenges.
“I believe that we’ve simply come to grasp it higher over time,” Kahn says. “It was onerous to seek out the best match with different items. It’s a masterpiece by itself.”
For the ensemble, the recording represents an opportunity to work on music they have been enthusiastic about.
“All through your profession, individuals are usually suggesting, oh why don’t you report this,” he says. There’s usually an emphasis on what’s new and fascinating “After 30 years, I do know that Franck is a extremely widespread piece, and the Schumann is a well-known piece, however we’re not getting any youthful,” he laughs. “The Franck’s been on that checklist for a very long time.”
Recording in Edinburgh
“The precise recording course of, we recorded it in Edinburgh and it was fabulous,” Steeves says.
The recording have been captured in Greyfriars Kirk, a Church of Scotland cathedral based in 1620. On the recording day, there was a throng of vacationers on the road. “What we discovered was, JK Rowling had written Harry Potter throughout the road,” he says.
Delphian, their report firm, made certain the added road noise didn’t make it into the recording.
“They’re fabulous to work with,” Timothy provides.
The Scottish recording firm connection stems from his research in Germany. A trainer retired to Scotland and recorded with Delphian. A merely inquiry from Timothy was all it took to be signed with the Edinburgh-based firm.
“Edinburgh is such an unbelievable place,” Nancy says.
Their recording Maier Franck Schumann will likely be obtainable on Amazon on August 22, 2025 [HERE] and through Delphian Information [HERE].
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Anya Wassenberg is the Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. Beforehand, she was a contract author with a specialty in tradition and journey for 3 a long time, and a artistic writing teacher for Ontariolearn.
