BOUNDLESS- Schubert Sonatinas with violinist Zachary Carrettin and pianist Mina Gajic BEST OF 2020

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

BOUNDLESS, the recent Sono Luminus release (DSL 92240) is a source of joy in our often joyless times: https://youtu.be/_sWZHZXczMk

If Franz Schubert could join me in expressing delight at this execution of his music he most certainly would. The album features three Schubert sonatinas from Opus 137: D.384 in D major, D 385 in A minor, and a dozen works later, D 408 in G minor.

The two artists who bring these gems to vivid life are violinist Zachary Carrettin and pianist Mina Gajic. The instrument that Carrettin plays with a bow made by John Dow around 1800 is a gut-strung jewel built after the Second World War by Luthier Franz Kinsberg. The piano is an Sébastien Érard 1835 treasure recently brought back to life by the Dutch piano builder Frits Janmmat.

The playing of these two invaluable artists: gentle, elegant, utterly Romantic and romantically intimate is perfect for these works of the young Schubert, conceived as they were for the salon, not for the concert hall.

There is not an iota of grandstanding or self-serving flashiness obstructing the connection between the players and the music at any moment during the 56 minutes of sheer delight that BOUNDLESS brings to the listener.

Recorded in an intimate, acoustically-perfect hall in Colorado, exquisitely produced by Erica Brenner, engineered from a to z by the ever flawless Daniel Shores and given an impeccable packaging by Sono Luminus, this one is already at the top of my Best of 2020 list.

Rafael de Acha RafaelMusicNotes.com

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.”