OLD SOULS

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

1565009402_PTC5186815OLD SOULS – Beethoven… Wolf…. Kreisler… – Gili Schwarzman, flute…Guy Braunstein, violin…Susanna Yoko Henkel, violin…Amilhai Grosz, viola… Alisa Weilerstein, cello – PENTATONE (PTC 5186 815) Recording Producer, Editing and Mastering, Justus Beyer

Husband Guy Braunstein and wife Gili Schwarzman have played recitals together as a duo and separately since they were married. They recently set out to explore ways of integrating the flute into the string quartet, serenade, sonata or quintet formats, thus making it a fifth member of the traditional two violins, viola, and cello structure for which so much good Romantic literature exists.

By inviting the flute that normally inhabits the world of the Baroque into the terra incognita of Beethoven, Hugo Wolf, Fritz Kreisler, and Antonin Dvořák, the pair and their colleagues Susanna Yoko Henkel, Amilhai Grosz, and Alisa Weilerstein collectively achieved a cohesive sound perfectly suited both to the severity of Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 4 in A Minor, and the Italianate sound of Wolf’s Serenade on G Major, the Viennese Gemütlichkeit of Fritz Kreisler’s piéce d’occasion Syncopation, and the  American dance rhythms of Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 12.

In each of Braunstein’s arrangements Schwarzman takes the spotlight with a chameleonic capacity to change colors, from the silvery brightness of her Wolf to the darker hues of her Beethoven.

The five old souls in the quintet are nothing short of perfect as an ensemble in accuracy, musicality and flair, delivering felicitous results throughout the CD’s nine tracks and making its 52 minute playing time fleetly fly by.

Just listen: https://youtu.be/woz6kvEng9E

***** Excellent

Rafael de Acha

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”