One Violin and a Host of Technical Passions

One Patrick Yim, violin. New Focus Recordings 411 Total Time:  70:03 Recording:   ****/**** Performance: ****/****

Patrick Yim currently is an Assistant Professor of Violin at the University of Notre Dame and is noted for his passionate musicianship and amazing technical prowess.  He has commissioned a number of works and the current album, One, presents six new works for solo violin.

Ilari Kaila’s (b. 1978) Solitude (2021) kicks things off with a flurry of sound and driving energy that explores different registers of the instrument with a repeated, tonal pattern that push things forward until a more somber, slower finale that reflects back on what has transpired with a more melancholic commentary.  A final flurry brings back a hint of the energy.  The album’s title comes from a multi-movement work, from 2020, composed by Juri Seo (b. 1981).  Each movement here depicts the character of a given month and each focuses on a specific technique from harmonics to quick arpeggiations, trills, open strings as pedal points, and more across the span of interesting movements.  A Melody from an Unknown Place (2020) by Takuma Itoh (b. 1984) provides a repose from the more dissonant music preceding it focusing on gentle melodic ideas and a more meditative approach that allows silence to enhance the instrument’s resonance.   In Hermitage (2020), Pall Ragnar Palsson (b. 1977) brings us back into a world of glissandi and harmonic modulation through a variety of quite expressive gestures in a rather fascinating work.  One of the longer works on the album, Fragile Remembrance (2023) is still a tightly-constructed work around some textural ideas and harmonic accents that become the core of the referential aspects of the music as it is transformed across the piece.  Matthew Schreibeis (b. 1980) also creates moments of dialogue with a left-hand pizzicato idea against a more melodic thread in another interesting exploration of technique.  John Liberatore’s Strange, High Sky (2023) closes things off in a three-movement work that explores the gamut of the violin’s range and a host of sonic marvels.  The technical requirements are also given their workout here too.

One is an often dazzling display of virtuosic playing as these composers explore the range and techniques of violin performance and capability.  Yim plays with an equal amount of passion and commitment which helps draw the listener in to these new musical voices.  There will no doubt be plenty of awe at the sheer muscularity and technical intensity that is brought to these challenging pieces.  This is certainly an album for all violinists to check out.

The accompanying booklet provides information for each work which helps to navigate some of the various techniques on display.  The overall sound here is immediate and still warm with Yim’s sound centered in the sound picture.  A great album of contemporary unaccompanied violin music worth tracking down.