Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

I first heard the Cesar Franck Sonata when I was sixteen and attended a recital of the great Polish-born Jewish violinist, Bronislaw Huberman. His closing work was the Franck Sonata, his signature piece. It became one of my favorites and I worked on it in my chamber music class at UCLA. That was before my youngest sister, Zina, was even born. Little did I dream that one day, I would have a sister who would play the Franck Sonata in this glorious recording. [Eileen Wingard]

Cecil Burleigh, Music for Violin and Piano features miniature pieces by the little-known American composer, Cecil Burleigh (1885-1980), performed by my sister, violinist Zina Schiff and pianist, Mary Barranger. Named Critic’s Choice Best of 2002 by the American Record Guide, the CD took its rightful place beside the music of other great American composers, such as Edward MacDowell, Paul Creston, Charles Ives, Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein, in Naxos’ epochal “American Classics” series—the most ambitious recording project of music by American Composers. [Eileen Wingard]

The Canadian-born pianist, Daniel Wnukowski, displayed his talents as an accomplished artist and an insightful teacher in a live-streamed program last Sunday afternoon, sponsored by the Amateur Pianists. He selected three works from three distinct musical periods, the Baroque, the Classical and the Romantic, which he analyzed and contrasted before treating us to beautiful renditions of each. His program consisted of Bach’s Prelude and Fugue #2 from the Well-Tempered Clavichord, the Theme and Variations from Mozart’s Piano Sonata in A major, and Chopin’s 3rd Ballade. [Eileen Wingard]