Kõrvits / Schumann / Grieg Duo Gazzana

• Tõnu Kõrvits (b. 1969): Stalker Suite:
• 1Kõrvits: Stalker Suite: I. Into the Zone03:30
• 2Kõrvits: Stalker Suite: II. The Room02:49
• 3Kõrvits: Stalker Suite: III. Monologue01:58
• 4Kõrvits: Stalker Suite: IV. Waterfall02:20
• Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856): Violin Sonata No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 105:
• 5Schumann: Violin Sonata No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 105: I. Mit leidenschaftlichem Ausdruck08:10
• 6Schumann: Violin Sonata No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 105: II. Allegretto03:41
• 7Schumann: Violin Sonata No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 105: III. Lebhaft05:40
• Tõnu Kõrvits: Notturni:
• 8Kõrvits: Notturni: I.02:30
• 9Kõrvits: Notturni: II.01:38
• 10Kõrvits: Notturni: III.02:27
• 11Kõrvits: Notturni: IV.02:43
• Edvard Grieg (1843 - 1907): Violin Sonata No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 45:
• 12Grieg: Violin Sonata No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 45: I. Allegro molto ed appassionato08:57
• 13Grieg: Violin Sonata No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 45: II. Allegretto espressivo alla Romanza06:28
• 14Grieg: Violin Sonata No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 45: III. Allegro animato07:45
• Total Runtime01:00:36

Info for Kõrvits / Schumann / Grieg

In a continued balancing act of combining inventive contemporary works with traditional classical repertoire on ECM New Series, this time the duo of Italian sisters Gazzana – violinist Natascia and pianist Raffaella – ventures back to the 19. century for impassioned interpretations of Robert Schumann’s sonata op. 105 and Edvard Grieg’s sonata op.45. The two embrace these core romantic scores with a profound understanding of the composers’ idioms and intentions. Premiere recordings of Estonian composer Tõnu Kõrvits’ Stalker Suite and Notturni, each in four movements, make up the modern part of the programme – the pieces were composed explicitly for the Gazzanas. Stalker Suite is a homage to the renowned filmmaker Andrei Tarkovski with a strong emphasis on the nuances of texture and tonality, diligently explored between violin and piano. The performances were captured in the historic Reitstadel Neumarkt in November 2021 and produced by Manfred Eicher.

Prior recordings by Duo Gazzana have seen the Italian sisters garner much praise and critical acclaim for their “imaginative playing, and willingness to color outside the customary lines” (Fanfare). The BBC Music Magazine called their interpretation of César Franck’s Violin Sonata “a masterclass”, and the German Spiegel magazine considers them “one of the most interesting new chamber duos, (…) capable of successfully linking seemingly disparate artists like Ligeti, Ravel and Messiaen with conviction.” In a continued balancing act of combining inventive contemporary works with traditional classical repertoire on ECM New Series, this time the duo of Italian sisters Gazzana ventures back to the 19th century for impassioned interpretations of Robert Schumann’s Sonata op. 105 and Edvard Grieg’s Sonata op. 45. Premiere recordings of Estonian composer Tõnu Kõrvits’s Stalker Suite and notturni, each in four movements, make up the contemporary part of the programme.

Shortly after becoming musical director of the orchestra in Düsseldorf in 1850, Robert Schumann’s mental health started to decline and it is in this period that he wrote his final violin works, including the Violin Sonata No.1 in A minor, from 1851. Like many of his later works, this piece is characterized by a particularly dense thematic concentration. The first movement’s darkly surging main theme, coloured by the sonority of the violin’s rich, husky G string, is one of the composer’s most memorable inventions. Natascia and Raffaella Gazzana connect with the piece on a deeply committed level, making the canonic element of the first movement, ‘Mit leidenschaftlichem Ausdruck’, resonate with special expressiveness. The Allegretto in Rondo form is a brisk intermezzo giving way to the third movement, ‘Lebhaft’, which brings back the canonic structures, calling on some of the duo’s most fervent playing.

For Edward Grieg’s Sonata No. 3 in C minor the Gazzanas opted for the composer’s first copy instead of the first edition of the score, thereby shedding fresh light on Grieg’s final Sonata, which is understood to have been a personal favorite of the composer’s. Norwegian folk melodies and rhythms are transfigured here, as the Sonata navigates from the pressing opening movement ‘Allegro molto ed appassionato’ through a swift romance, ‘Allegretto espressivo alla Romanza’, to the rousing rhythm of the ‘Allegro animato’ that concludes the Sonata. The focus shifts back and forth between violin and piano in the process.

Tõnu Kõrvits’s works contrast this romantic repertoire musically, as well as by their sequencing on the album. NPR has called Kõrvits “a supremely lyrical sensualist”, and his idiosyncratic compositional voice seems to be influenced equally by 20th century minimalism and the practices of his former mentor, the late Estonian master composer Veljo Tormis. But his music floats between the idioms, not abiding by strict sets of rules. Opening the programme is Stalker Suite, in homage to Andrei Tarkovsky and named after the film director’s chef d’œuvre from 1979. This suite, as the four notturni that follow later on, Kõrvits dedicated to the Gazzanas. Both performances are premiere recordings and capture the tonal ambivalence of the composer’s scores with poignancy. Not quite miniatures, nor exactly in song form, the pieces defy conventional structure.

Paul Griffiths draws visual parallels between the film and the composition in his liner note, especially for the suite’s final movement: “‘Waterfall’, in remembering the piano’s repertory of aqueous imagery, remembers too the presence of water in the film, running and still, living and dead. The violin adds a lament. The piece breaks off on the threshold of something it has caught sight of but cannot bring nearer, not now. Or not yet.” The four notturni, composed in 2014 and similar to the Stalker Suite by design, investigate common chords, steadily interspersed with dissonances and textural frictions, creating open yet tense spaces for violin and piano to explore.

The performances were captured in the historic Reitstadel Neumarkt in November 2021 and produced by Manfred Eicher.

Natascia Gazzana, violin
Raffaella Gazzana, piano

Duo Gazzana
besteht aus den Schwestern Natascia Gazzana (Violine) und Raffaella Gazzana (Klavier). Beide haben ihre musikalische Ausbildung bei so bedeutenden Musikern wie Bruno Canino, Trio di Milano, Yehudi Menuhin, Carlo Romano, Uto Ughi, Piero Farulli, Pierre Amoyal, Pavel Gililov, Igor Ozim, Ruggiero Ricci usw. in Rom, Genf, Brüssel, Siena, Lausanne, Fiesole und Salzburg absolviert. Ihre natürliche musikalische Begabung wurde durch diese Studien gefördert, ihre Technik verfeinert und ihre Ausdruckskraft gesteigert.

Neben ihrer musikalischen Ausbildung haben beide Schwestern an der römischen Universität „La Sapienza“ studiert. Das Duo wurde mit zahllosen Preisen, Anerkennungen, Ehrendiplomen in Italien und im Ausland ausgezeichnet und gibt Konzerte in den bedeutendsten Konzertsälen in aller Welt: Mailand, Tokio, Rom, Hong Kong, Paris, Singapur, Oslo, Zürich, Stockholm, Kapstadt, Hanoi usw.

Booklet for Kõrvits / Schumann / Grieg