Duo Concertante (Nancy Dahn, violin & Timothy Steeves, piano) is celebrating almost three many years of worldwide touring and performing with a brand new launch. Maier Franck Schumann: Violin Sonatas will likely be launched on the Delphian Data label on August 22.
The repertoire focuses on the Romantic sonata and its expressive potentialities.
Robert Schumann wrote his Sonata No. 1 in a mere 4 days in 1851. The work pushes the envelope relating to notions of Classical restraint propriety. The emotional depth of the Sonata would show inspirational to generations of future composers.
Amanda Maier’s B minor Sonata was composed in 1874, and received a prize from the Swedish Artwork Music Society. César Franck’s a lot liked A serious Sonata rounds out the album.
Duo Concertante (Nancy Dahn, violin & Timothy Steeves, piano): The Interview
They’ve been a private {and professional} duo for many years. “I assume 1998,” says Dahn. “That’s a very long time in the past.” It’s once they formally turned Duo Concertante, performing ensemble.
“On the very starting, we thought we’d begin out by studying the Beethoven Kreutzer Sonata. Why not begin with probably the most tough?” she laughs.
Definitely, toughing it out over a tough piece could be a precursor to an excellent working relationship. As they started to tour and carry out collectively frequently, they agreed on a twin give attention to customary repertoire and new music.
“It’s been a very wealthy expertise specializing in each,” Nancy provides.
The Duo has commissioned greater than 65 authentic works from Canadian and worldwide composers over their profession as an ensemble, together with Chan Ka Nin, R. Murray Schafer, Kati Agócs, Andrew Staniland, Kelly-Marie Murphy, Alice Ho, Omar Daniel, Linda Bouchard, and Jean Lesage, amongst many others.
The Tuckamore Competition
The couple based the Tuckamore Chamber Music Competition, primarily based in St. John’s Newfoundland, in 2001. The 2025 version passed off from June 23 to July 6. This system included 25 concert events unfold throughout 25 venues within the area.
“This 12 months, we celebrated our twenty fifth competition. That was type of thrilling, 25 years,” Steven says.
They’ve expanded on their common summer season programming to incorporate a couple of extra concert events all through the season. “We have now an enormous academic competition as properly,” Steeves says. This 12 months’s cohort included 23 younger string gamers and pianists who labored with seasoned artists. He stories that a few of these budding musical partnerships will lead to excursions and performances later this 12 months.
“This 12 months, for the twenty fifth 12 months competition, we actually went loopy,” Nancy provides. That included an extra 37 concert events throughout all the province, incorporating Labrador, and so far as Hopedale. “These actually distant communities,” she says. “Newfoundland is large. Simply attending to the opposite aspect is 10 hours in your automotive. It was an effective way to rejoice 25 years.”
A lot of these concert events have been essentially held in smaller venues, however they have been routinely stuffed with appreciative audiences.
“The audiences have been actually hungry to listen to classical,” Dahn says.
The Repertoire
The music on the album is available in half from their historical past of performing collectively.
“We’ve performed a few of these loads,” Nancy notes. “The Franck Sonata — it’s been a pillar of our repertoire.”
“We’ve been enjoying the Schumann for about 20 or 25 years,” Steeves says.
“For me personally, I didn’t recognize the genius of Schumann till later in life,” Nancy provides. “It took me some time dwelling together with his work to acknowledge his uniqueness.”
The variations captured on the album are interpreted with years of expertise. Maier’s Sonata is the outlier.
“Maier may be very contemporary,” Timothy says. “Terrific piece. She was a superb violinist and a tremendous composer.” As he factors out, and customary for the time, as soon as Amanda married and had kids, any skilled aspirations have been put aside. The Swedish violinist and composer died on the younger age of 41 in 1894.
Her work matches neatly between Schumann and Franck.
“It enhances the Schumann,” Timothy says.
Nancy notes that the work of the uncared for composer first got here to her consideration by way of a thesis that had been written on Maier. One in every of her violin college students at Memorial College discovered the Sonata.
“I stated to Tim, you understand, it is a actually, actually nice piece,” Dahn recollects. “We play it loads now.”
“It’s a very nice piano piece too,” Steeves provides. “The 2 devices work collectively actually, rather well. It’s actually thrilling to hearken to and a whole lot of enjoyable to play.”
“She wrote this piece when she was 23. It’s simply astounding,” says Nancy. “There’s already a very particular person voice there, a persona.”
It’s one other of the rising variety of works which have been rediscovered and/or revived after generally centuries of neglect relating to illustration within the conventional canon of classical music.
“It’s not likely true, the best way we expect, that the items we’ve ended up at present are actually the best items, as a result of it hasn’t been a good enjoying area in any respect,” Dahn states.
From a 2023 efficiency:
Beloved Franck
“I feel the Franck particularly — we’ve journeyed by the Franck.” As he factors out, César Franck’s Violin Sonata in A Main was written as a marriage current for virtuoso Eugène Ysaÿe in 1886.
The music is commonly interpreted as describing a long run relationship from early ardour to disillusionment to studying to dwell collectively in concord.
“It’s all within the piece,” Nancy says.
It’s all the time been on their listing of works to file, however it offered some distinctive challenges.
“I feel that we’ve simply come to grasp it higher over time,” Kahn says. “It was laborious to seek out the best match with different items. It’s a masterpiece by itself.”
For the ensemble, the recording represents an opportunity to work on music they have been captivated with.
“All through your profession, individuals are typically suggesting, oh why don’t you file this,” he says. There’s typically an emphasis on what’s new and attention-grabbing “After 30 years, I do know that Franck is a very well-liked piece, and the Schumann is a well-known piece, however we’re not getting any youthful,” he laughs. “The Franck’s been on that listing for a very long time.”
Recording in Edinburgh
“The precise recording course of, we recorded it in Edinburgh and it was fabulous,” Steeves says.
The recording have been captured in Greyfriars Kirk, a Church of Scotland cathedral based in 1620. On the recording day, there was a throng of vacationers on the road. “What we discovered was, JK Rowling had written Harry Potter throughout the road,” he says.
Delphian, their file firm, made positive the added avenue noise didn’t make it into the recording.
“They’re fabulous to work with,” Timothy provides.
The Scottish recording firm connection stems from his research in Germany. A trainer retired to Scotland and recorded with Delphian. A merely inquiry from Timothy was all it took to be signed with the Edinburgh-based firm.
“Edinburgh is such an unimaginable place,” Nancy says.
Their recording Maier Franck Schumann will likely be accessible on Amazon on August 22, 2025 [HERE] and by way of Delphian Data [HERE].
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Anya Wassenberg is the Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. Beforehand, she was a contract author with a specialty in tradition and journey for 3 many years, and a inventive writing teacher for Ontariolearn.
