Search - Mark Feldman, Sylvie Courvoisier :: Music for Piano & Violin

Violinist Mark Feldman can tackle anything. He's an expert Nashville session player, an alarming free improviser, and, as this set shows, a wonderful chamber player. Calling these duets between Feldman and pianist Sylvie Courvoisier simply chamber music, though, would be selling them short. The music gallops through genres, scorching tonality in the opening "Smoke" and then exploring a sweet waltz in "One Too," which quickly morphs into "Too Romantisch Too" and then "Too Speedy"--all of which is touched uniquely by Feldman and Courvoisier's mix of sharp jazz chops, 20th-century chamber music, and traditional music of multiple stripes. Feldman plays his violin in full, elegant embraces but is also unfazed when it comes time to twist his execution and create storms that invoke glissandi that would make Xenakis proud. Courvoisier, too, plays gently on the keyboard before unleashing chopping waves and clusters that play dissonantly off the more traditional moments--of which there are plenty--on the CD. Adding to the deep rapport Feldman and Courvoisier share is an audio environment that's spectacularly well engineered. The sounds, no matter how quiet or loud, are given just the right attention and ring all the clearer for the detailed perfection. --Andrew Bartlett