Victoria Chiang

ROSLAVETS First Viola Sonata
ROSLAVETS Second Viola Sonata
Allegro commodo, Assai moderato, Allegro conspirito
SHOSTAKOVICH Sonata for Viola and Piano, Op. 147
Victoria Chiang, viola; Randall Hodgkinson, piano
Centaur Records crc 2450

"Chiang (an exceptionally smooth-toned violist) and Hodgkinson make the most of the melodic content of the First, too, playing up the Faureesque bittersweetness of its thematic material rather than the heightening our sense of its rhythmic conflicts, and coaxing us with their flexible phrasing rather than startling us with their revelation of the music's contrapuntal density. The resulting performance is faster, less pressured, than Gridchuk's-and in the end, it makes a stronger case for the music.

Chiang and Hodgkinson resist current received opinion even more strongly in the Shostakovich. There is, perhaps, nothing heretical about their account of the ferociously obsessive middle movement, which Chiang plays with the gritty tone that she avoids elsewhere. But the opening Moderato and especially the closing Adagio gloss on the "Moonlight Sonata" are another matter. The current iconography of the bitter, dying Shostakovich has encouraged us to hear the slow movements of his late music as spare, static, and pregnant, each note carrying a poignant meaning- and the performances of the outer movements of the Viola Sonata, especially of the Adagio, have consequently tended to ignore the metronome markings and draw out the tempo, as if each note had to be given a chance to tell its tale of sorrow. Chiang and Hodgkinson, however, think in lines rather than points, cutting a good five minutes off the 18 that Bashmet and Muntian (16:4) devote to the finale-indeed, cutting a good two minutes off the relatively speedy Kashkashian/Levin account. As a result, the music seems less despairingly barren, less "remorselessly glacial," less like what Robert Carl calls "one of the great valedictory movements in music" than it often does. But if, like me, you've sometimes shared Royal S. Brown's belief that "the final Adagio never really makes a case for its constant flirtings with Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata," this recording may well convince you of the music's quality. Certainly, it emerges with more—dare one say humanity?

In sum, these are the kinds of performances that encourage you to reexamine your presuppositions. The sound is fair, the annotation insufficient-but that's no obstacle to a strong recommendation."
-- Fanfare, The magazine for serious record collections

"This unusual program of Russian viola music makes for gratifying late-night listening."
-- American Record Guide

I have always looked forward to receiving recordings of violists with whom I'm not familiar. Ms. Chiang is an artist-faculty member of the Peabody Conservatory of Music and has had an extensive career of performing and teaching. I asked Ms. Chiang a couple of questions before writing this review. One was what kind of viola did she play? I expected to hear she played an instrument that was at least 100 years old since it had a lovely tone throughout its entire range. I was very surprised to hear it was made by Etienne Vatelot in Paris in 1997. Ms. Chiang is a daring and consummate artist of whom, I'm sure, we shall hear much more in the future."
-- Journal of the American Viola Society

"Violist Victoria Chiang, a current faculty member at Peabody Conservatory, has released an outstanding disc of viola works by Nikolai Roslavets and Dmitri Shostakovich. Chiang is to be commended not only for her excellent playing, but also for her compelling program, which demonstrates the inexhaustible invention of two very different composers."
-- Cadenza, An die Musik's Guide to New and Unique Recordings

"These two distinguished American musicians play both [Roslavets] sonatas persuasively. Victoria Chiang sounds altogether purposeful in the Shostakovich Sonata. The performances are very good."
-- The Strad, Tully Potter

Purchase Shostakovich/Roslavets CD