Camille Saint-Saëns: La Muse et le poète, Op. 132
Ernest Chausson: Poème symphonique, Op. 25
Ralph Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending
Anatol Kos-Anatolsky: Poem for Violin and Orchestra in D minor
Kenneth Fuchs: American Rhapsody (Romance for Violin and Orchestra)
Myroslav Skoryk: Carpathian Rhapsody

Ukrainian born violinist Solomiya Ivakhiv is praised for her "crystal clear and noble sound" (Culture and Life, Ukraine) and acclaimed for her "distinctive charm and subtle profundity" (Daily Freeman, New York). She is celebrated as a soloist, recitalist and chamber music collaborator, as a champion of new music and as a dedicated educator {Website Notes}. In this impressive and highly cohesive program, she brings together six strongly individual and yet commensurate tone poems for violin and orchestra. With the exception of the more focused ethnicism of the Carpathian Rhapsody by Ukrainian composer Myroslav Skoryk (1938-2020), all of these works share in common a darkly emotive and highly expressive tenor.

Unlike many violinists who seem to only generate a silvery sweet tone throughout everything they play, Solomiya Ivakhiv's warmer, darker shades of rufescent tonal palettes, go hand in hand with the overall melancholy character of these pieces. For example, she reveals the fiery romanticism of the late 19th century Poème symphonique by Ernest Chausson (1855-1899). And the same can be said about the way she captures and projects the lofty desolation of The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958). She infuses life into every note, especially in the way she shapes and colors the longer, extended notes be they low or high.

Another positive feature of this recording, unlike so many collections of this kind, is that none of the pieces break the mood set down by the previous one. An autumnal mist pervades the music from start to finish, so nothing jolts you out of your emotive state. Committed and expressive musicianship throughout.