Duo Concertante (Nancy Dahn, violin & Timothy Steeves, piano) is celebrating almost three many years of worldwide touring and performing with a brand new launch. Maier Franck Schumann: Violin Sonatas can be launched on the Delphian Information label on August 22.
The repertoire focuses on the Romantic sonata and its expressive prospects.
Robert Schumann wrote his Sonata No. 1 in a mere 4 days in 1851. The work pushes the envelope in the case of notions of Classical restraint propriety. The emotional depth of the Sonata would show inspirational to generations of future composers.
Amanda Maier’s B minor Sonata was composed in 1874, and gained a prize from the Swedish Artwork Music Society. César Franck’s a lot cherished A significant Sonata rounds out the album.
Duo Concertante (Nancy Dahn, violin & Timothy Steeves, piano): The Interview
They’ve been a private {and professional} duo for many years. “I assume 1998,” says Dahn. “That’s a very long time in the past.” It’s after they formally grew to become Duo Concertante, performing ensemble.
“On the very starting, we thought we’d begin out by studying the Beethoven Kreutzer Sonata. Why not begin with probably the most tough?” she laughs.
Actually, toughing it out over a tough piece could be a precursor to working relationship. As they started to tour and carry out collectively often, they agreed on a twin deal with normal repertoire and new music.
“It’s been a very wealthy expertise specializing in each,” Nancy provides.
The Duo has commissioned greater than 65 authentic works from Canadian and worldwide composers over their profession as an ensemble, together with Chan Ka Nin, R. Murray Schafer, Kati Agócs, Andrew Staniland, Kelly-Marie Murphy, Alice Ho, Omar Daniel, Linda Bouchard, and Jean Lesage, amongst many others.
The Tuckamore Pageant
The couple based the Tuckamore Chamber Music Pageant, based mostly in St. John’s Newfoundland, in 2001. The 2025 version passed off from June 23 to July 6. This system included 25 live shows unfold throughout 25 venues within the area.
“This yr, we celebrated our twenty fifth competition. That was form of thrilling, 25 years,” Steven says.
They’ve expanded on their ordinary summer time programming to incorporate a couple of extra live shows all through the season. “We’ve an enormous instructional competition as nicely,” Steeves says. This yr’s cohort included 23 younger string gamers and pianists who labored with seasoned artists. He studies that a few of these budding musical partnerships will end in excursions and performances later this yr.
“This yr, for the twenty fifth yr competition, we actually went loopy,” Nancy provides. That included a further 37 live shows throughout all the province, incorporating Labrador, and so far as Hopedale. “These actually distant communities,” she says. “Newfoundland is large. Simply attending to the opposite aspect is 10 hours in your automobile. It was a good way to rejoice 25 years.”
A lot of these live shows have been essentially held in smaller venues, however they have been routinely filled with appreciative audiences.
“The audiences have been actually hungry to listen to classical,” Dahn says.
The Repertoire
The music on the album is available in half from their historical past of performing collectively.
“We’ve performed a few of these loads,” Nancy notes. “The Franck Sonata — it’s been a pillar of our repertoire.”
“We’ve been enjoying the Schumann for about 20 or 25 years,” Steeves says.
“For me personally, I didn’t recognize the genius of Schumann till later in life,” Nancy provides. “It took me some time residing together with his work to acknowledge his uniqueness.”
The variations captured on the album are interpreted with years of expertise. Maier’s Sonata is the outlier.
“Maier could be very recent,” Timothy says. “Terrific piece. She was a superb violinist and a tremendous composer.” As he factors out, and customary for the time, as soon as Amanda married and had kids, any skilled aspirations have been put aside. The Swedish violinist and composer died on the younger age of 41 in 1894.
Her work matches neatly between Schumann and Franck.
“It enhances the Schumann,” Timothy says.
Nancy notes that the work of the uncared for composer first got here to her consideration through a thesis that had been written on Maier. Certainly one of her violin college students at Memorial College discovered the Sonata.
“I stated to Tim, , this can be a actually, actually nice piece,” Dahn remembers. “We play it loads now.”
“It’s a very nice piano piece too,” Steeves provides. “The 2 devices work collectively actually, very well. It’s actually thrilling to hearken to and loads of enjoyable to play.”
“She wrote this piece when she was 23. It’s simply astounding,” says Nancy. “There’s already a very particular person voice there, a character.”
It’s one other of the growing variety of works which were rediscovered and/or revived after generally centuries of neglect in the case of illustration within the conventional canon of classical music.
“It’s not likely true, the way in which we predict, that the items we’ve ended up at present are actually the best items, as a result of it hasn’t been a good enjoying discipline in any respect,” Dahn states.
From a 2023 efficiency:
Beloved Franck
“I believe the Franck particularly — we’ve journeyed via the Franck.” As he factors out, César Franck’s Violin Sonata in A Main was written as a marriage current for virtuoso Eugène Ysaÿe in 1886.
The music is commonly interpreted as describing a long run relationship from early ardour to disillusionment to studying to reside collectively in concord.
“It’s all within the piece,” Nancy says.
It’s all the time been on their record of works to file, however it introduced some distinctive challenges.
“I believe that we’ve simply come to know it higher over time,” Kahn says. “It was laborious to search out the suitable match with different items. It’s a masterpiece by itself.”
For the ensemble, the recording represents an opportunity to work on music they have been obsessed with.
“All through your profession, individuals are usually suggesting, oh why don’t you file this,” he says. There may be usually an emphasis on what’s new and fascinating “After 30 years, I do know that Franck is a very well-liked piece, and the Schumann is a well-known piece, however we’re not getting any youthful,” he laughs. “The Franck’s been on that record for a very long time.”
Recording in Edinburgh
“The precise recording course of, we recorded it in Edinburgh and it was fabulous,” Steeves says.
The recording have been captured in Greyfriars Kirk, a Church of Scotland cathedral based in 1620. On the recording day, there was a throng of vacationers on the road. “What we discovered was, JK Rowling had written Harry Potter throughout the road,” he says.
Delphian, their file firm, made positive the added road noise didn’t make it into the recording.
“They’re fabulous to work with,” Timothy provides.
The Scottish recording firm connection stems from his research in Germany. A instructor retired to Scotland and recorded with Delphian. A merely inquiry from Timothy was all it took to be signed with the Edinburgh-based firm.
“Edinburgh is such an unbelievable place,” Nancy says.
Their recording Maier Franck Schumann can be obtainable on Amazon on August 22, 2025 [HERE] and through Delphian Information [HERE].
Are you trying to promote an occasion? Have a information tip? Must know the very best occasions occurring this weekend? Ship us a notice.
#LUDWIGVAN
Get the day by day arts information straight to your inbox.
Join the Ludwig Van Toronto e-Blast! — native classical music and opera information straight to your inbox HERE.
Anya Wassenberg is the Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. Beforehand, she was a contract author with a specialty in tradition and journey for 3 many years, and a inventive writing teacher for Ontariolearn.