Rachel Barton Pine's Tribute to Maud Powell

American Virtuosa: Tribute to Maud Powell
Rachel Barton Pine, violin
and Matthew Hagle, piano

Cedille Records CDR 90000 097 [Oct/Nov 2006; 79 mins]

Here is a unique recital, well off the beaten track or our usual esoteric interests, but entirely captivating.

Lots of nostalgia, and pieces older listeners will find they know, often in different versions (e.g. Chopin's Minute Waltz is splendid in this arrangement).

Plenty of virtuosity, but musical more than just flashy.

Pine is as fine a violinist as you are likely to come across, and she has an extensive Cedille discography. By searching you might come across Duncan Druce's review of her Baroque disc (Chicago's Cedille is a record company you are advised to get to know better!).

Only one regret; excellent as is Rachel Barton Pine's pianist partner, I should have been happier if, rather than the standard Steinway, they might have chosen a more suitable contemporary piano for this repertoire - c.f. a newly released disc of Elgar's songs accompanied on Elgar's own Broadwood piano, soon to be reviewed by Musical Pointers.

Recommended enthusiastically.

Peter Grahame Woolf

Full liner notes from the lavish booklet, with the violinist's extensive research, are on line at https://www.cedillerecords.org/097.html