Piano-violin duos - Ravel and Franck

Please come join a violin and piano duo recital featuring violinist Strauss Shi and pianist Yi-Fang Wu

Program:

Maurice Ravel: Sonata for Violin and Piano No.2

Franz Waxman: Carmen Fantasy

Cesar Franck: Sonata for Violin and Piano in A Major

This program consisting of music by Ravel, Franck, and Bizet (adopted and transformed by Franz Waxman) is a showcase of versatility and virtuosity.

The Second Sonata for Violin and Piano by Ravel tantalizes the audience through innovative juxtapositions: the mellifluous and playful counterpoint is followed by the St. Louis Blues seen through a Parisian lens, and the sparks that fly in dizzying perpetual motion close the masterfully bound three-movement work.

To those familiar with the chamber music literature need no introduction to the monumental Sonata by Cesar Franck, which was dedicated and gifted to one of the greatest violinist-composer in history, Eugène Ysaÿe. This wedding present is a remarkable testament to the friendship between two Belgian musical icons, and its interpreters are demanded to forge a relationship that is equally significant to portray the intense and intimate emotional journey.

In succession to the fireworks composed by Pablo Sarasate and Jeno Hubay on unmistakably popular themes from Georges Bizet's opera, Carmen, Franz Waxman produced another favorite for virtuosi and music-lovers alike.This Carmen Fantasy was originally composed for a 1946 film, Humoresque, in collaboration with none other than the young Isaac Stern. This masterpiece satisfies every guilty pleasure of flair, finesse, and the stylishly bombastic.