Camille Berthollet & Julie Berthollet - Camille & Julie Berthollet (2016) [CD-Rip]

This debut recital by teenage sisters Camille and Julie Berthollet (Camille plays both violin and cello, Julie the violin) consists of light music, but has an exuberant, fearless quality that suggests deeper things to come. The sisters arrange the program in the manner of a 19th century concert for the general public, with an orchestra trading tracks with a piano in the accompanist slot and a gleeful mix of familiar tunes, ethnic dances, folk-like melodies (here extended forward to Gershwin, whose Summertime gets a highly novel treatment), and movements of serious trios by Schubert, gorgeously played. This would all be enough in itself, but the real fun comes from the constantly shifting roles of the solo violins and cello, variously deployed in arrangements that have in some cases been around for a while (the Gluck tune appears in a setting by Fritz Kreisler), but have never been put together in quite this way. Sample the Paganini Caprice No. 24 and enjoy the deconstruction of Paganini's solo violin work into material for two violins and orchestra. The cleverness with which the whole program is put together belies the lightness of the material, and these are definitely young musicians to watch. Highly recommended. -- James Manheim