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Atma Classique4
I Can Finally Feel the Sun
Robert Uchida, violin; Philip Chiu, piano
ATMA Classique, 2025
On his latest album for ATMA, violinist Robert Uchida takes us on a musical journey through space and time, from Telemann to contemporary composers, via Bach, Ysaÿe, Debussy and Stravinsky. The artist also evokes the history of the instrument that belonged to his mentor Andrew Dawes who died in 2022: the 1770 “Dawes, de Long Tearse” violin made by Guadagnini, which Uchida inherited. Among the repertoire is a piece by Murray Adaskin composed especially for Dawes. What’s more, Uchida and his piano partner Philip Chiu have taken care to select works that are more or less closely related, despite the era or origin that sometimes separates them.
The album opens with music from Pulcinella in an arrangement for violin and piano that highlights Stravinsky’s anachronistic approach. Inspired by the baroque, this Suite italienne moves from flamboyant writing to a more temperate—and darker—roundness, then to overflowing energy before returning to an embroidered style worthy of royal dances. Its last two movements take us forward at least a century, using highly romantic compositional codes.
Pulcinella makes stylistic departures which, in themselves, illustrate the eclecticism of the musicians. From Stravinsky we go straight to Jean Papineau-Couture, himself inspired by the Russian composer’s Fauvist approach in The Rite of Spring.
The performance of Telemann’s 12 Fantasias for solo violin demonstrates—even more clearly than before—Uchida’s relative nervousness in baroque repertoire. It is surprising that these pieces are not played with the same conviction as the contemporary works on this disc. Bach’s Partita No. 3 is certainly very lively, but the rendering of the notes lacks finesse and the regularity of the rhythm is not beyond reproach. Hence the difficulty when offering such a vast repertoire of works that likewise showcase a diversity of expertise.
Translation: Gianmarco Segato
This page is also available in / Cette page est également disponible en:
Francais (French)
