Schumann: The Sonatas for Violin and Piano
Jennifer Koh, violin
Reiko Uchida, piano
Cedille Records CDR 90000 095

Playing and recording the Schumann Sonatas is one of my most personal projects to date. Schumann's music has always compelled me as a musician and a listener for as long as I can remember. Schumann's music is the most human with its viscerally haunting, obsessive, tender, and vulnerable extremes. One can connect a lifetime of experiences (birth, love, hate, death) into every phrase of his music. These disparate experiences are tied together into one life (one phrase, one movement, one sonata) in Schumann's music. A single phrase is like a poignant memory that returns and with each visit is reborn more vividly, more passionately, more tenderly than before. Jennifer Koh

This recording is dedicated to the memory of Edward Aldwell. His warmth, generosity and wit are missed by all who knew him. His integrity and intelligence as a musician will always inspire us.

"Based on the evidence of this new Schumann CD, I wouldn't be in the least hesitant to place Koh's name among the "big star" violinists. . . . Her playing on this disc is of a transfiguring refinement and beauty that somehow manages to blend a sense of angelic chastity with a sense of profound human knowingness. 'this is a must-have for all chamber music-lovers." FANFARE

"Violinist Jennifer Koh and pianist Reiko Uchida make a strong case for these three minor-key works, in lyrical, taut and mutually responsive performances. Themes are strikingly stated and developed with a lean, driving elegance." SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

"Koh displays an astonishingly wide variety of attacks and exquisite technical control. Uchida gracefully grabs the thematic material when it comes her way. You end up wishing Schumann had composed more violin sonatas." TIME OUT CHICAGO