WILD DANCE - Duo Sonidos

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WILD DANCE - Arrangements for Violin and Guitar - Duo Sonidos - 747313404575 - Released: February 2019 - Naxos 8.574045

George Gershwin: Porgy and Bess
- It ain't necessarily so
- Summertime
Paul Kochanski/Karol Szymanowski:
- Swit (Dawn)
- Dziki taniec (Wild Dance)
Joaquin Rodrigo: Cuatro canciones sefardies (Four Sephardic Songs)
Maurice Ravel: Deux Melodies hebraiques (Two Hebraic Melodies)
Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Much Ado About Nothing
- Intermezzo
- Hornpipe
Manuel Maria Ponce: Estrellita (My Little Star)
John Williams: Theme from Schindler's List
Lukas Foss: Three American Pieces
- Early Song
- Dedication
- Composer's Holiday

And now for something completely different ... arrangements of well-known and not so well-known pieces for violin and guitar. Except for 'Swit' which was arranged by Allen Krantz, all pieces have been arranged by Gregg Nestor, an internationally acclaimed guitarist himself and composer of film scores. These arrangements seem to have been harboured from the need to allow the guitar more participation in chamber music arrangements of otherwise restricted works. They are all performed here by Adam Levin (Guitar) and William Knuth (Violin) otherwise known as Duo Sonidos, in this their first of three volumes exploring this repertoire.

Played and expressed with a solid understanding of each piece's spirit, essence and character, they well capture and project the stylistic as well as emotional chasm that separates Dziki taniec (Wild Dance) and the Theme from Schindler's List for example. And I'm not quite sure as to why they picked "Wild Dance" as the title for the CD, since most of the music on this recording is more of a subdued, dark and melancholy nature. There's also a noticeable measure of the Jewish soul that runs through this music, and again this is another aspect that both Levin and Knuth evoke very well. I would recommend this to anyone who likes either guitar or violin music and is interested in hearing both instruments spread their wings over uncharted territory.

Jean-Yves Duperron - April 2019