Elizabeth Chang, violin; Steven Beck, piano.
Karol SZYMANOWSKI: Mythes, Trois Poèmes, op. 30
Ernst von DOHNÀNYI: Violin Sonata in C♯ minor, op. 21
Béla BARTÓK: Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano
Bridge Records 9590
Formats: CD
Release Date: May 17, 2024
Total Duration: 66:00
Giorgio Koukl | 14 MAY 2024
When examining their art of conceiving a violin and piano score with its harmonic substance, the three prominent early 20th-century composers chosen for this disc could not be more different. Yet, all works recorded here were written within ten years of each other. That certainly is a significant indicator of the fervent times of change reigning in Europe in that particular historical moment where post-romanticism coexisted with impressionism and the many new forms developing.
Szymanowski, Dohnányi, and Bartók are certainly not unknown today, and their violin and piano works have been recorded many times. But the combination of these three scores on a single disc is new and promising.
First of all, listening to the few bars of this installment immediately reveals two musicians who are clearly accustomed to working together. This is not the so-frequent casual encounter of two people doing a recording jointly and departing from each other, never to return. These musicians breathe together, shaping beautiful dynamic and small rubati, clearly enjoying themselves while playing.
The first piece, by Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937), Mythes, Trois Poèmes op. 30, was written in 1915 for the Polish violin virtuoso Pawel Kochanski. The three movements inspired by Greek mythology are “La Fontaine d’Arethuse,” “Narcisse,” and “Dryades et Pan.”

Pianist Steven Beck (stevenbeck.me)
The music is difficult to categorize. Many have tried to find analogies in Scriabin or Debussy, but both composers differ too much in using harmonic shifts and melodic progressions. Maybe Nikolai Tcherepnin’s last period is the closest to Szymanowski’s inner world.
This score is terribly difficult, especially for the pianist, and it must be said that Steven Beck is doing a really magnificent job, providing a scintillating accompaniment that never prevails over the subtle but well-evident violin sound. Violinist Elizabeth Chang has the natural gift of producing a simple but elegant bow in phrases that are sometimes very long and difficult to manage. This part of the disc is certainly the most recommended.
Ernst von Dohnànyi (1877-1960) wrote his Violin Sonata in C♯ minor op. 21 in 1912, so only three years before Szymanowski, yet it had a wholly different inner world. In its three movements (“Allegro appasionato,” “Allegro ma con tenerezza,” and “Vivace assai”), the romantic content fully prevails. Despite some timid dissonant experimentation in the second movement, this is a product of the 19th century and, at least in some parts, could have been written by Mendelssohn or Schumann.
It certainly poses no great challenge to the musicians and strangely enough the duo Chang and Beck play it far too relaxed, in some places simply lacking drive and power to remain interesting for the listener. The big question here is: is this score the right companion to names like Szymanowski and Bartok or would a different composer of such a rich array of possibilities the beginning of the 20th century offers have been a better choice? Both works have approximately the same duration, some 15 minutes, but the Dohnanyi seems far too long.
The final work is the first of the two violin sonatas written by Béla Bartók (1881-1945). Both are a product of musical attraction to a young violinist called Jelly d’Arànyi, who premiered both in a private concert in London. She must have been quite an exceptional young lady as many other works were written for her, among others, Ravel’s Tzigane.
Bartók’s Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano has the classical number of movements (“Allegro appassionato,” “Adagio,” and “Allegro”) but lasts over 30 minutes, and its structure has no more traces of the romantic world. It is formally free, with no first and second theme and no development. The flow of apparently informal ideas is distributed between the violin and the piano, which seem never to collaborate and rarely imitate the musical material of the other partner. Add to this an extremely dissonant structure (or at least dissonant for the period still used to romantical harmonic structures) and one can understand the marvel Bartók expressed in a letter: “My work was very well received, even an article in the Times appeared, all this was far more than I expected.”
The third movement, with its rough Romani theme, is stupendously played by Ms. Chang. It is precisely there that she expresses all her potentiality.
Adding to all this is a superior sonic image, a dry but natural sound of both violin and piano, that gives the listener a product that can be easily recommended. ■
EXTERNAL LINKS:
- Elizabeth Chang: elizabethchang.net
- Steven Beck: stevenbeck.me

Read more by Giorgio Koukl.