Search - Donald Martino, Blair McMillen :: Music by Donald Martino

This is going to be some kind of career

Personne | Rocky Mountain West | 10/24/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Miranda Cuckson's agent must be tearing out his hair. Here we have a young attractive violinist with bucketloads of technique. She could make a ton of money if she'd only play that same boring, polite stuff that all the other virtuosos are playing. Thank goodness she's not doing that. This music is too good to be left to lesser talent.



I first encountered Miranda Cuckson in a fine CD of music by Ralph Shapey. I was impressed both with her playing and with the fact that she understood what was going on in the music. She accomplishes that same feat with the very different music of Donald Martino. There are two sonatas here--one for unaccompanied violin--and two shorter pieces for solo instrument. All but one piece (the Fantasy Variations) were written before 2002.



Sonata for Solo Violin comes in four movements whose basic approach--fast, slow, tricky, fast--isn't much different from the traditional form of hundreds of sonatas. Until you get to the notes. In these late pieces, Martino shows a greater affinity for the long line than in much of his earlier music. There are still treacherous demands on the player. I continue to be impressed by Cuckson's command of the bow. She appears to have infinite control of her articulation and can pull every bit of color and expression from this marvelously expressive piece. The third movement tips its hat to Bartok's unaccompanied sonata. It's a pizzicato fugue that you'll swear has more than a single player.



The second sonata is next and is the only piece with piano. Once again Blair McMillen is on the piano. The writing is sparse, linear and rapid-fire. Piano and violin move both with and against each other. Once again the form is traditional but the melody and harmonic sense are Martino's own.



The Romanza for solo violin is described as being loosely in the tradition of 19th-century showpieces. I am reminded more of the solo string music of Bach. This is just too thoughtful a piece to bring fireworks to mind. Still there are passages of double-stops that must be impossible to play--except Cuckson can play them. The CD ends with Fantasy-Variations from 1962. This is the only piece of this group that has been previously recorded. The music is more intentionally virtuosic and more controlled in its notation. I have another recording by Paul Zukovsky. The two performances make nice companions. Zukovsky's version is more assertive and Cuckson's is more personal.



Miranda Cuckson's enthusiasm for this music is real and infectious. She's written the liner notes herself to throw some light on the way she sees each piece. She expresses regret that she had only the briefest of contact with Martino before he died. She never met him, but she knows him. I crossed paths with Don Martino a few times. I think he'd have been delighted with the way this recording turned out."