Jennifer Koh and Reiko Uchida - Schubert / Schumann / Schoenberg / Coleman: Violin Fantasies (2000)

Hype often surrounds young artists, and Jennifer Koh has had her share. As touted in her promotional material, she is technically brilliant and flashy, a spitfire violinist with dazzling abilities. But little in this publicity would suggest her seriousness or her thoughtful programming. Violin Fantasies is an intelligent album, built conceptually around that freest of forms, the fantasia, and the works of four composers. Koh's virtuosity is evident; she is intensely focused and agile, and she executes difficult passages with consummate ease. But she is rather more concerned to invite comparisons between the works and to point up the composers' inventive handling of a form without specific rules. There are stylistic similarities between Schubert and Schumann in their respective Fantasies, though there is a marked difference between the former's open lyricism and expansiveness, and the latter's heavier, more introspective musings. Going further afield, Schoenberg's Phantasy is an extraordinarily free-sounding work despite its rigorous twelve-tone organization. Ornette Coleman's Trinity, a fantasy for solo violin, is improvisational in character and pacing, though carefully notated and only slightly inflected with a jazz flavor. Koh and her pianist Reiko Uchida play with a fine balance of skill and expressiveness and deserve credit for emphasizing musical substance over facile showiness. © TiVo