Violinist Geneva Lewis has made her Delos recording debut with an all-American programme featuring works by Samuel Barber, John Zorn and Philip Glass. She is accompanied by fellow New Zealander Gemma New conducting the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, with palpable empathy.
Barber’s Concerto: Airy and Poetic
Samuel Barber’s concerto receives an airy, poetic reading. Lewis and New embrace the music’s lyrical pastoralism while pointing up the opening movement’s scotch snap. The ongoing Celtic motif is seized upon by the orchestra and pays off in a moto perpetuo conclusion that feels second cousin to a highland fling.
Lewis’s tone is warm and full of feeling, aching in the allegro and andante, feisty and folkish in the finale.
Zorn and Glass: Virtuosity and Haunting Tone
John Zorn’s Partita for the Firebird is a modernist take on a baroque suite, including a catchy courante that channels a hoedown, with subtle allusions to Stravinsky’s ballet. Lewis’s virtuosity is on full display with laser-focused double stopping and filigree pianissimos at the very top of the instrument.
Philip Glass’s Violin Concerto No 1, written in memory of his father, was his first major work for standard symphony orchestra. Slightly viscous orchestral textures and resonant engineering make it harder for the soloist to make a mark, but New leads an exhilarating account. Lewis’s silvery tone is especially haunting in the pensive slow movement.
