Preview a Debut Recital with a New Album

“Cover” design for Stella Chen’s debut album

Following this afternoon’s recital in Herbst Theatre by violinists Paul Huang and Danbi Um, the next program to be presented by Chamber Music San Francisco (CMSF) will be a debut performance by violinist Stella Chen on the evening of Tuesday, March 14. Fortuitously, that recital will be preceded by the release of Chan’s debut album Stella x Schubert, which, according to Amazon.com, will take place this coming Thursday, March 9. That release will be strictly digital; and, as is frequently the case with Amazon, a Web page has been created for pre-ordering an MP3 album download. As of this writing, there does not seem to be any information about a physical release.

The primary composition on the album is Schubert’s D. 934 fantasy for violin and piano, which includes an extended set of variations on Schubert’s D. 741 “Sei mir gegrüßt” song. For good measure Chen performs the vocal line of the song itself on the following track. As on the entire album, she is accompanied by pianist Henry Kramer, who will also accompany her for her CMSF recital. While Chen will play D. 741 “from the score,” her album then concludes with Mischa Elman’s transcription of “Ständchen,” the fourth song in Schubert’s D. 957 Schwanengesang (swan song) collection. One selection precedes the performance of D. 934, the D. 895 rondo in B minor.

Readers may recall that the coupling of D. 934 and D. 741 was also performed almost exactly a month ago in the February installment of Chamber Music Tuesday at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. They may also know of my admiration of Leonard Slatkin’s precept, “You can never conduct enough Haydn or Schubert;” and, as far as I am concerned, it applies to chamber music as well as orchestral compositions. Thus, while I am far from merely familiar with all of the selections on Stella x Schubert, I am always open to opportunities to listen to new interpretations of the music. As a result, I expect that I shall return to this album from time to time in the future; and I shall be particularly interested in listening to D. 934 when Chen brings it to her CMSF recital.