Wenting Kang & Sergei Kvitko: Mosaic
Blue Griffin Recordings

What makes Mosaic so deserving of recommendation? Jump to violist Wenting Kang and pianist Sergei Kvitko's exquisite rendering of Maurice Ravel's Pavane pour une infante défunte for all the evidence required. Pacing, pitch, dynamics, intonation, vibrato—all are handled with extreme sensitivity and circumspection, the result a riveting treatment custom-designed to invite repeat visits. Much the same could be said of the other performances on this splendid sampling of material by French and Spanish composers, be they Claude Debussy and Isaac Albéniz or Gabriel Fauré and Manuel de Falla.

Mosaic is Kang's debut recording, and it's a good one. The playing by her, winner of the 1st Prize at the Tokyo International Viola Competition, and Kvitko, not only an acclaimed pianist and head of Blue Griffin Recording but the album's producer and engineer, is polished and the selections satisfying too. Adding to the seventy-one-minute recording's appeal, most of the pieces were arranged for viola for the first time and allow for wonderful displays of her dark, resonant sound. Viola pairs beautifully with the Steinway D piano Kvitko played during the summer 2021 sessions at the renowned Estudio Uno in Madrid, Spain.

With a set-list primarily drawn from composers active from the mid-nineteenth century to the first half of the twentieth, the material is richly melodic and romantic; a conspicuous outlier, temporally speaking, is Fantasia on Song of the Birds by Akira Nishimura (b. 1953), but the dramatic setting, inspired by the Catalan folk song “El Cant dels Ocells” and performed by Kang alone, sits comfortably alongside the others. In fashioning the material for viola, she benefited from existing transcriptions for violin and cello, ones created, for instance, by Jascha Heifetz and Emilio Colon of Debussy's Beau Soir and Falla's seven-part Siete Canciones populares Españolas, respectively. She also used Pablo Casals' transcription of Fauré's Après un rêve, Op. 7, No. 1 for her own treatment and included the cellist's mournful El Cant dels Ocells-Song of the Birds in the set. In the viola transcriptions she produced for Mosaic, Kang also, of course, has done a great service to fellow violists in expanding the repertoire.

The artistry both players bring to Debussy's Beau Soir, specifically the control and patience the two demonstrate in letting the material slowly blossom, makes it an alluring introduction; as strong is their luminous rendering of Première Rhapsodie. In addition to the Pavane, Ravel's represented by Vocalise-étude en forme de Habanera, with Kang maximizing the potency of its sinuous melodies. She's unaccompanied for Francisco Tárrega's ebullient Recuerdo de la Alhambra, a marvelous showcase for her highly advanced bowing skills. An even more impressive display of her scintillating technical ability occurs in Fauré's Papillon, Op. 77. While Kvitko generally embraces the role of accompanist, there are moments where his masterful playing moves into the spotlight, during Fauré's sombre Élégie in C minor, Op. 24, for example. Fauré's enticing reverie Berceuse, Op. 16 provides a showcase for her sweetly singing side, as does Albéniz's Tango in D Major, Op. 165 No. 2. At album's end, de Falla's Siete canciones populares españolas moves from the dance-like delights of “El Paño Moruno” and “Jota” to the pensive “Asturiana” and bewitching “Nana.”

May 2022