“Mendelssohn is a challenge, because his music appears to be so deceptively easy,” says the pianist Claire Huangci, speaking about her new album. Together with violinist Marc Bouchkov she has recorded works by Mendelssohn for violin and piano: the two Violin Sonatas in F – one major, one minor – and the Double Concerto in D minor. They are accompanied in the latter work by the successful conductor Howard Griffiths and the Basel Chamber Orchestra. As Ms Huangci points out, this represents a programme rich in contrasts highlighting Mendelssohn’s artistry and the versatility of such a combination of works: “A mix requiring wit and brilliance on the one hand, while also requiring the performers to go beneath the surface and reveal a deeper meaning including sorrow, compassion and nobility, and that is something that is not easy to detect at first glance. The young Felix Mendelssohn has such a feel for the dramatic.”
Howard Griffiths, who was responsible on behalf of the Orpheum Foundation and its sponsorship programme for the choice of performers on this recording, has been a friend of Claire Huangci for many years: “Claire has an affinity with this music. Most young pianists play Rakhmaninov, Chopin, the great Romantics, wonderfully, but they often lack something when it comes to performing Mozart or Mendelssohn. That is not the case with Claire. In the ten or more years that I have been following her career, she has developed an exceptional ability to convey in her playing what is going on between the notes; those hidden things that are not obvious.” Marc Bouchkov is her match made in heaven: “He is an outstanding violinist and has a distinct sense of sound and musical aspects.” This is how he describes his approach, especially with regard to the Double Concerto: “A lot of work on the core sound, just as singing would demand. The romantic style of my playing is added only when the hard work is done on the overall sound, plus of course the intonation. As I have learned, the vibrato must come from the heart. During this recording my heart was truly filled with Mendelssohn’s music.”
The fact that Mendelssohn’s oeuvre for violin and piano has received so little attention to date in fact works in favour of Marc Bouchkov and Claire Huangci: “If you are always playing the great, well known repertoire, you are automatically compared with famous predecessors,” Howard Griffiths points out. “Through this recording, the two young musicians can bring their own personal touch to these fantastic works.” And the result is very convincing throughout. “Working with Marc on these pieces was really enlightening,” concludes Claire Huangci. “The last movement of the F major Sonata nearly did for us, because we were both stretched to the limits of virtuoso playing.”
