Rachel Barton Pine – American Virtuosa

Tour 12/05/07 Scottish Chamber – Dumfries, Scotland 12/06/07 Scottish Chamber – Edinburgh, Scotland 12/07/07 Scottish Chamber – Glasgow, Scotland 12/08/07 Scottish Chamber – Aberdeen, Scotland 02/02/08 Ithaca College – Ithaca, NY 02/03/08 Ithaca College – Ithaca, NY 02/23/08 Music Institute of Chicago – Illinois 03/03/08 Jupiter Symphony – New York, NY 03/07/08 Dayton Philharmonic – Dayton, Ohio 03/08/08 Dayton Philharmonic – Dayton, Ohio 03/18/08 University of Chicago – Illinois 03/20/08 Jacksonville Symphony – Florida 03/21/08 Jacksonville Symphony – Florida 03/22/08 Jacksonville Symphony – Florida 03/29/08 Columbus Symphony Columbus, Georgia 04/14/08 Jupiter Symphony – New York, NY 04/17/08 Northwest Indiana Symphony – Merrillville, IN 04/17/08 Lane Tech Orchestra – Chicago, IL 04/25/08 New Philharmonic – Glen Ellyn, IL 04/26/08 New Philharmonic – Glen Ellyn, IL 04/15/08 Puerto Rico Symphony San Juan Discography [1994] Homage to Sarasate [1996] Handel: Sonatas for Violin & Continuo [1997] Liszt: Works for Violin and Piano, Vol.1 [1997] Stringendo: Storming the Citadel [1997] Violin Concertos by Black Composers of the 18th and 19th Centuries [1998] Instrument of the Devil [1998] Double Play: Twentieth Century Duos for Violin and Cello (with Wendy Warner) [2002] Introduction, Theme, and Variations on “God Defend New Zealand” [2002] Brahms and Joachim Violin Concertos [2004] Solo Baroque [2005] Scottish Fantasies for Violin & Orchestra [Jun 2006] American Virtuosa: Tribute to Maud Powell [Sep 2007] An Italian Sojourn Rachel Barton Pine http://weheartmus… Rachel Barton Pine is a renowned classical violin soloist, based out of Chicago, Illinois. She’s…

You know, there’s definitely going to be another Bands From Chicago, Illinois entry later. In the meantime, here’s another Chicagoan: Rachel Barton Pine. I’ve previously mentioned her here before, but this entry is just for her 2006 album American Virtuosa: Tribute to Maud Powell.

Most of the text are a well-researched mini-biography of Maud Powell, written by founder and president of The Maud Powell Society for Music and Education, Karen A Shaffer.

Not only do you get a CD full of Classical period pieces (all the songs were written between Powell’s time period of 1800s and 1900s), but you also get to learn a lot about this American violinist. You can only imagine her struggles back then, especially because of her gender.

Powell actually never wrote any original compositions, which may explain why she’s not more well-known in this century. What this album achieve is celebrating her life and bringing attention of her to a modern household.

All of the songs are very good, there’s a lot of variety in the choices of songs.

Rachel Barton Pine – Molly on the Shore

For instance, “Molly on the Shore” is an Irish-style song (originally written by Percy Aldridge Grainger). There’s a lot of sharp and quick strokes in this song that would most likely keeps your toes tapping.

Another dance-designed song is the quick “Minute Waltz” by Frédéric Chopin, which the violin seems to weave in and out in different directions. It’s also probably the shortest waltz you’ve ever heard, but it does last more than a minute (it’s two minutes long).

The most American song on this album is “Caprice on Dixie” by Herman Bellstredt Jr., which contain his interpretation of the popular song, “Dixie”. In this version, there seems to be almost some hand-plucked sounds from the violin (?), so it sounds like you can play this with a fiddle.

Here’s a listing of all the songs appearing on this album:

You can also hear more American Virtuosa songs in the background of my video Cooking with Vu, Episode 2 – however Stage6 wasn’t working the last time I checked.

 12/01/2007 21:47:50  vu my♥posts rachelbartonpine.com myspace.com