<<  -- 3 --  Bill Newman    CELEBRATORY PARADE

12. Violinists

When comparing Corey Cerovsek and Timothy Fain, the considerable contrast between their styles merged together perfectly on the occasions when they played together.

There is always this eternal fascination about performers that provides the equivalent of 'the iceing on the cake' relating to the repertory they prepare so consistently. Corey and Timothy both have natural outgoing personalities. They like to exchange news and views about other older performers -- both expressing an admiration for Szigeti and Stern, for instance -- but there is a very real merging of tonal forces with other players in Quartets and Quintets by Chausson and Franck, Moszkowski's Suite, Prokofiev's Two-violin Sonata, and likewise in Faure's song cycle La Bonne Chanson.

Their stature as solo artists is more clearly contrasted in chosen repertoire. I was very impressed comparing Tim's detailed accuracy in Pierre Boulez' Anthemes -- a very exacting extension of the instrument's expressive range, and Fauré's delectable First Sonata. Corey's perfectly-in-tune, sweetly singing phrasing continually singled him out as a natural in Josef Suk's four fiendishly virtuosic pieces, a group of Kreisler sweet meats and chosen chamber masterpieces including the violin. Does he always look so radiantly happy while at work?

Continue >>