Presto Editor's Choice
November 2021

Alexei Semenenko (violin), Artem Beroglov (piano)

Previn: Violin Sonata No. 2
Schemmer: Oboe Sonata
Gay, P: Violin Sonata

On this transatlantic disc, three American composers born during the first half of the last century rub shoulders with two young musicians from Eastern Europe. A member of the BBC New Generation Artists scheme, the violinist Aleksey Semenenko first met the pianist Artem Belogurov at the Stolyarsky Special Music School in Odessa at an early age. Even if their individual careers have taken to different parts of the world, the two still perform together whenever possible, and here they present three sonatas.

Of the composers, the best-known is André Previn who composed his Violin Sonata No. 2 in 2011 for Anne-Sophie Mutter. An improvisatory spirit permeates the work which is in three movements with the markings Joyous, Desolate and Brilliant. Tony Schemmer and Paul Gay are both based in the Boston area and share a background in which jazz and classical genres merge. This is reflected in their sonatas, composed in the 1980s and here appearing on disc for the first time.

"These two young musicians have played together since their student days in Odessa, and there's a real sense of music-making between friends on this triptych of sonatas by American composers; I love their exuberant, open-hearted sound in the first movement of André Previn's Violin Sonata No. 2 from 2011, and the darker hues they both summon for the Idyll of the Paul Gay sonata from 1984." - Katherine Cooper, Presto Classical, November 2021.