Maya Magub and Hsin-I Huang: Consolations
CRD Records

Consolations is the title of a Franz Liszt work featured on violinist Maya Magub and pianist Hsin-I Huang's release, but it's also a natural choice for a collection designed to bring comfort to listeners. Just as music helped the two survive the global pandemic, they in turn hope the recording they've fashioned will bring solace to others. Joining the new transcriptions of Liszt's six-part piece—written originally for solo piano, five movements were arranged by Magub to go with the third, violinist Nathan Milstein's arrangement of the “Lento placido,” and recorded here for the first time—are ones by Handel, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Massenet, Rachmaninov, and others, common to all a soothing tone and wistful character. Separately each exudes charm; together, they impart a potent emotional punch.

The two bring impressive CVs to the collaboration. Born and educated in Britain, the now Los Angeles-based Magub plays on film soundtracks, performs chamber music, records, and gives live concerts at some of the world's most prestigious venues. She's played for the Queen of England, the Prince of Wales, and Stephen Hawking, and with popular figures such as Adele and Paul McCartney. Huang has likewise established herself as a chamber performer, played on film scores, issued personal recordings, and played at concert halls and festivals throughout the world. As duet partners, they are, clearly, an excellent match.

Though lockdown-imposed circumstances forced the two to record the material separately from home studios, the intimate result plays as if they performed in the same space. The Liszt material was selected first, after which Magub searched through her father's collection of old sheet music in search of other works that would complement it. Nostalgia for nature, home, and connection with others infuses the pieces, regardless of stylistic differences.

With the material generally slow and contemplative, there are unlimited opportunities to savour the splendour of Magub's sighing tone and her assured handling of vibrato, phrasing, and dynamics. Schumann's “Abendlied” (Evening song) is merely the first of many such demonstrations, and it hardly hurts that Huang's minimal accompaniment for this lovely children's song directs attention to the violin. As touching is Massenet's “Meditation” (from the opera Thaïs), especially when the song's heart-tugging melodies are delivered with a vocal-like yearning by Magub; again Huang's sensitive performance amplifies the impression of the song as a comforting caress. Following those two early high points is a rendering of Rachmaninov's beloved “Vocalise,” whose melancholic expression lends itself superbly to a violin-and-piano treatment when the original's vocal contains no words. It would be a cold heart indeed that could remain unmoved by such material.

Those three settings set a wonderful stage for Liszt's Consolations, which advances from the tender chorale “Andante con moto” and softly singing “Un poco piu mosso” on through the time-suspending supplications of the “Lento placido,” hymnal hush of the “Quasi Adagio,” playful “Andantino,” and lyrical “Allegro sempre cantabile.” Playfulness surfaces also in “Liebesleid” (Love's Sorrow), an endearingly sentimental reverie written by violinist Fritz Kreisler in the style of a ländler dance. He seduces a second time via the nostalgic swoon of “Chant Hindou,” his arrangement of the “Song of the Indian Guest” from Rimsky-Korsakov's opera Sadko, as does violinist Samuel Dushkin's “Sicilienne” for its melodic grace and endearing trills.

While Mendelssohn's “On Wings of Song,” the second of his Six Songs for Voice and Piano (1834), soars elegantly, the first song from his eight-volume Songs Without Words is languorous and lyrical. A transcription of Handel's aria “Ombra mai fu” (1738), the Largo” from Xerxes is certainly one of the loveliest pieces on the recording, if not the loveliest. A release so-themed would feel incomplete without Chopin, and sure enough the two smartly chose the “‘Raindrop' Prelude” as a touching set-ender.

Illuminating commentaries by Magub on the selections come with the release, but truth be told nothing more than one's undivided attention is required for the music to reward. The hushed performances by the two entrance every step of the way and yield many satisfactions. A comment made by International Record Review in 2013 about Magub's solo recording of the Telemann Fantasias (also on CRD)—“Defined by great bowing delicacy and subtle use of vibrato, these performances are full of colour and vitality”—applies as easily to the latest one when her engagement with the material is as complete as it is on that earlier set.

July 2022