An imaginative programme makes for a compelling recording debut
THE STRAD RECOMMENDS
The Strad Issue: October 2024
Description: An imaginative programme makes for a compelling recording debut
Musicians: Jordan Bak (viola) Richard Uttley (piano)
Works: Bax: Viola Sonata. Britten: Lachrymae. Harvey: Chant. Read Thomas: Song without Words. Sheng: The Stream Flows. Vaughan Williams: Romance
Catalogue number: DELPHIAN DCD34317
Published in cooperation with the Young Classical Artists Trust, this vividly recorded recital lays down the remarkable credentials of multi award-winning Jamaican–American violist Jordan Bak. Its centrepiece is Arnold Bax’s sonata, written in 1922 for Lionel Tertis.
With Richard Uttley a strong and proactive partner, Bak revels in the piece’s ‘Celtic twilight’ style of lyricism without ever over-indulging it. The cragginess of the often low-lying piano part finds a fine counterpart in Bak’s nut-brown tone and passionate phrasing. Vaughan Williams’s Romance – also written for Tertis – highlights the viola’s high register, Bak’s vibrant double stops ringing freely in the dramatic middle section, following the lovely intimate tones he finds for the piece’s modally tinged main motif.
Read: Violist Jordan Bak joins Bowling Green State University faculty
The variations in Britten’s Lachrymae are nicely characterised by both players, Bak unafraid of making some nasty sul ponticello sounds when the music demands it. His wide tonal palette is fully displayed in the unaccompanied Chant, Jonathan Harvey’s exploration of the unusual sonorities brought forth by a scordatura tuning that includes an A string lowered by a quarter-tone. Harvey’s sophisticated use of harmonics is beautifully realised by Bak, as are the meandering cantilena and subtle slides of Bright Sheng’s The Stream Flows and the arcane musings of Augusta Read Thomas’s Song without Words.
CARLOS MARÍA SOLARE
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