Works for Violin and Piano by Magma Duo

Various composers

Magma Duo

Works for Violin and Piano

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Globe
UPC: 8711525526303
Catnr: GLO 5263
Release date: 03 June 2016
Buy

1 CD ✓ in stock	€ 19.95	Buy

Label
Globe

UPC
8711525526303

Catalogue number
GLO 5263

Release date
03 June 2016

"The Magma Duo has assembled an interesting program."

American Record Guide, 28-6-2017

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

Press

About the album

The Magma Duo took their name from one of their favorite pieces: In de magmakamer (In the magma chamber) by Reza Namavar, that was written especially for them. Although equally at home with music by Beethoven and Frank, their first album features only 20th and 21st century music, ranging from the popular Poulenc Sonata recording to recording premieres of Aleksey Igudesman’s irresistible 2nd Violin Sonata and the Namavar piece. The Magma Duo’s fiery musical temperament makes for a spellbinding album, that will engage listeners regardless of their musical tastes. In 2014, the Magma Duo won the first prize in the senior category of the “A Feast of Duos!” international competition for violin-piano duos in Sion, Switzerland. According to judges, the Magma Duo convinces through its ‘energetic playing which evokes reactions.’

Het Magma Duo dankt zijn naam aan het stuk ‘In de Magmakamer’ van Reza Namavar, dat in 2011 speciaal geschreven is voor het Oskar Back Vioolconcours. Nadat Emmy Storms en Cynthia Liem de prijs voor de beste vertolking van dit werk in ontvangst hadden genomen en het werk in de finale van het concours in de Grote Zaal van het Concertgebouw uitvoerden, besloten zij deze naam te gebruiken. Het duo bestaat echter al langer: Emmy en Cynthia kwamen elkaar als studenten tegen op het conservatorium. Meteen hadden ze een sterke persoonlijke klik, en al gauw gingen ze steeds vaker samenspelen. Eerst nog als Trio Vere met cellist Ephraïm van IJzerlooy, waarmee ze in 2008 de Labberté-Hoedemakerprijs toegekend kregen tijdens het Peter de Grote Festival in Groningen. Nadat Emmy toetrad tot het Trio Suleika bleef het Magma Duo over.

„Erinnerst du dich noch, als wir zum ersten Mal die Poulenc-Sonate gespielt haben?“ Das Zusammenspiel des Duos Cynthia Liem und Emmy Storms ist frisch, jung, unvermittelt und vermag es dennoch, die ganz eigenen Feinheiten einer Komposition hervorzuheben. So kommt in besagter Violinsonate von Poulenc eine dunkle Strömung auf, zelebrieren die beiden Musikerinnen die vielen Taktwechsel und Läufe in Reza Namavars In de magmakamer – dem Stück, das dem Duo seinen Namen gab. Mit dem gleichen Enthusiasmus, mit dem die beiden Musikerinnen in Wettbewerbe gehen, spielen sie, und ihr Repertoire ist vielseitig: Von atonal über folkloristisch wagen sie sich in alle stilistischen Ebenen vor bis hin zur modernen Komposition des Violinisten Alexey Igudesman, der als eine Hälfte des beliebten musikomödiantischen Duos Igudesman & Joo die Konzertsäle der Welt bereist.

Artist(s)

Magma Duo

The Magma Duo is named after the piece ‘In de Magmakamer’ (‘In the Magma Chamber’) by Reza Namavar, which was a work commissioned for the National Oskar Back Violin Competition 2011, the most important violin competition in the Netherlands for violinists aged 17-26. During this edition of the competition, Emmy Storms (violin) and Cynthia Liem (piano) received the award for the best rendition of this compulsory piece, after which they decided on continuing as a regular ensemble called the ‘Magma Duo’. Emmy and Cynthia have known each other since the start of their music degree studies at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. They immediately had a lot of fun together, and quickly converged into the same musical direction.
Recently, the Magma Duo auditioned for the Dutch Classical Talent Tour and Award, a prestigious national concert tour and career development program for recently graduated musicians, and was chosen as one of the four laureates for the 2014-2015 concert season. Because of this, in November and December 2014 the duo will undertake a concert tour past all major chamber music stages in The Netherlands, with lots of special publicity by Radio 4, the national classical music radio station.
In 2014, the Magma Duo won the first prize in the senior category of the ‘A Feast of Duos!’ international competition for violin-piano duos in Sion, Switzerland. Besides, the duo received two more special prizes: the ‘Konzerthaus Prize’ and the ‘Käch Artists Prize’, which will lead to a concert engagement in the Viennese Konzerthaus, and a concert engagement organized by Käch Artists Management. Thanks to their participation in this competition and sponsoring of the Dutch Classical Talent Tour and Award, the Magma Duo also got the chance to work with Aleksey Igudesman and Hyung-ki Joo, who are among the duo’s greatest musical idols.
According to the judges of the Dutch Classical Talent Tour and Award auditions, the Magma Duo convinces through its ‘energetic playing which evokes reactions’. Indeed, the duo has a fiery, passionate stage presence, while also taking the joy that both Emmy and Cynthia have in performing together to the stage. During duo rehearsals, the duo always leaves room for experiments, humor and spontaneity, which often leads to surprising, fresh insights. Always looking for challenges, the duo enjoys going off the beaten path in terms of programming, with special interest in contemporary, Dutch and lesser-known repertoire. In all this, the mission of the duo always remains to be as convincing as possible in interpreting the message of a composer, and to be as accessible as possible in communicating this to the audience.

less

Emmy Storms (violin)

Cynthia Liem (piano)

Composer(s)

Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland was an American composer, pianist, conductor and music pedagogue, who is regarded as the most important representative of the American modern composers, who are known for their preference for theatre music. Critics and peers referred to him as ‘the Dean of American Composers’.
During the 1920s Copland studied three years with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. Her total grasp of classical music became his most important influence, and led him to compose music in various genres and numerous settings, including opera, ballet, music for film, theatre, orchestra, piano and small ensemble. During his studies in Paris Copland encountered the music of Ravel, Satie, and the members of Les Six, which impressed him. However, his greatest hero and favorite 20th-century composer was not French: it was the Russian Igor Stravinsky. Copland admired him for his typically Russian music, and wanted to express the music of his native country in his compositions just like him. For that purpose he drew inspiration from jazz, which rhythms and harmonies can be found in his early compositions.
During the 1930s and 1940s, when Copland had returned to America, the jazz gave way to (Latin) American folk tunes, which he arranged in a number of accessible compositions , which made him well-known to a wide audience: the ballets Billy the Kid, Rodeo and Appalachian Spring, the Third Symphony, El Salón México and the Fanfare for the Common Man. These are Copland’s best known works, which are still regularly performed and recorded.
During the 1950s Copland distanced himself from the popular tendencies in his compositions, and began to use serialist and twelve-tone techniques in his music in an attempt to join the modern composers.
From the 1960s onwards Copland began to focus on conducting, since he did not have any new ideas for compositions. He became a frequent guest conductor of orchestras in the United States and made a series of recordings of his music.

less

Matthijs Vermeulen

Aleksey Igudesman

Aleksey Igudesman was born in Leningrad at a very young age. He has never won any competitions, mainly because he has never entered any. During his studies at the prestigious Yehudi Menuhin School, he read the entire plays of Bernhard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, and Anton Chekhov, which didn’t improve his violin playing, but made him feel foolishly somewhat superior to other less intellectually endowed, yet harder practising colleagues. After studying with Boris Kuschnir at the Vienna Conservatoire and being told many times by many people that they were rather worried about his future, he embarked on a successful career playing, composing, and arranging for his string trio, “Triology”, recording several CD’s for BMG, working in Hollywood with Academy Award® winner...

less

Reza Namavar

Reza Namavar started composing at the age of fourteen. He was especially fond of making music and creating new things, and composing turned out to be a good combination of both. In 2001 Namavar wrote the ensemble piece In principe wel, with which he won the Henriëtte Bosmans Prize. It would not be long before he received commissions from ensembles such as The Hague Philharmonic, Dutch Wind Ensemble, Amstel Quartet and the Schönberg Ensemble. He has worked with artists such as baroque soprano Deborah York and guitarist Gary Lucas, and conductors such as Etienne Sebers and Reinbert de Leeuw. He has also performed at various festivals, like the Berliner Festspiele and the Holland Festival. The compositions of Namavar are characterized by seeming...

Reza Namavar started composing at the age of fourteen. He was especially fond of making music and creating new things, and composing turned out to be a good combination of both.
In 2001 Namavar wrote the ensemble piece In principe wel, with which he won the Henriëtte Bosmans Prize. It would not be long before he received commissions from ensembles such as The Hague Philharmonic, Dutch Wind Ensemble, Amstel Quartet and the Schönberg Ensemble. He has worked with artists such as baroque soprano Deborah York and guitarist Gary Lucas, and conductors such as Etienne Sebers and Reinbert de Leeuw. He has also performed at various festivals, like the Berliner Festspiele and the Holland Festival.
The compositions of Namavar are characterized by seeming lightheartedness, behind which a complex construction of surprising melodic phrases and harmonic twists is hidden. By choosing for the unexpected in his music, he calls the ideas of the listener into question.

less

Francis Poulenc

Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and pianist. Poulenc's wealthy family intended him for a business career in the Rhone Poulenc family company and did not allow him to enrol at a music college. Largely self-educated musically, he studied with the pianist Ricardo Viñes, who became his mentor after the composer's parents died. Poulenc soon came under the influence of Erik Satie, under whose tutelage he became one of a group of young composers known collectively as Les Six. This group of French composers from the 1920s aimed to clear music of the impressionism of Claude Debussy, and German influences such as the Romanticism of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. Their motto was 'L'art pour l'art': they composed music for the sake of...

Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and pianist. Poulenc's wealthy family intended him for a business career in the Rhone Poulenc family company and did not allow him to enrol at a music college. Largely self-educated musically, he studied with the pianist Ricardo Viñes, who became his mentor after the composer's parents died. Poulenc soon came under the influence of Erik Satie, under whose tutelage he became one of a group of young composers known collectively as Les Six. This group of French composers from the 1920s aimed to clear music of the impressionism of Claude Debussy, and German influences such as the Romanticism of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. Their motto was "L'art pour l'art": they composed music for the sake of music, without any 'meaning' or extramusical intents. In his early works Poulenc became known for his high spirits and irreverence. During the 1930s a much more serious side to his nature emerged, particularly in the religious music he composed from 1936 onwards, which he alternated with his more light-hearted works.

less

Press

The Magma Duo has assembled an interesting program.
American Record Guide, 28-6-2017

''Especially the pianist has a great ear for building up the music and giving color to the music''
De Volkskrant, 27-7-2016

Luister - July 2016
Luister, 08-7-2016

Play album

01.

Violin Sonata: I. Allegro con fuoco