The title First Day, in the words of the young cellist Laura Metcalf, refers to how "[t]his album represents many firsts, beginnings, and youthful sentiments" for Metcalf and her pianist collaborator, Matei Varga. It's a fair summary of the album's sunny, energetic mood, and it points to Metcalf's personal connections with a couple of the composers on the program. The program is significant, however, in a deeper and more innovative way: what Metcalf offers is a set of works deeply informed by popular music without being "crossover." She draws links among tango and Argentine creole music, Eastern European nationalism, contemporary North American rock, and the French Baroque, making these all fit together in a way no oneRead more has before. The music never gets too heavy or too light, and Metcalf's enthusiastic, but perfectly controlled, tone in the weightiest work on the program, George Enescu's Cello Sonata in F minor, is worth sampling in itself (track 8). Her insistence that the works by composers she knows (Caleb Burhans and Dan Visconti) belongs alongside the national traditions of the early 20th century represents a way forward for classical music, and when she breaks into a little Poulenc song at the end, the listener is likely to have to be restrained from taking off into the stratosphere. Superb sound from Sono Luminus, one of the few American labels playing in the engineering big leagues, is a bonus.
Graciela y Buenos Airesby José Bragato Performer:
Matei Varga (Piano),
Laura Metcalf (Cello)
Period: 20th Century Venue: Sono Luminus Studios, Boyce, Virginia Length: 7 Minutes 44 Secs.
2.
Variations on a Slovak folksong for Cello and Pianoby Bohuslav Martinu Performer:
Matei Varga (Piano),
Laura Metcalf (Cello)
Period: 20th Century Written: 1959; Switzerland Venue: Sono Luminus Studios, Boyce, Virginia Length: 10 Minutes 7 Secs.
3.
Phantasieby Caleb Burhans Performer:
Matei Varga (Piano),
Laura Metcalf (Cello)
Period: 20th/21st Centuries Written: USA Venue: Sono Luminus Studios, Boyce, Virginia Length: 7 Minutes 5 Secs.
4.
Pampeana no 2 for Cello and Piano, Op. 21by Alberto Ginastera Performer:
Matei Varga (Piano),
Laura Metcalf (Cello)
Period: 20th Century Written: 1950; Argentina Venue: Sono Luminus Studios, Boyce, Virginia Length: 10 Minutes 4 Secs.
5.
Hard-Knock Stomp, for violaby Dan Visconti Performer:
Matei Varga (Piano),
Laura Metcalf (Cello)
Period: Contemporary Written: 2000 Venue: Sono Luminus Studios, Boyce, Virginia Length: 2 Minutes 52 Secs.
6.
Léocadia: Les chemins de l'amourby Francis Poulenc Performer:
Laura Metcalf (Cello),
Matei Varga (Piano)
Period: 20th Century Written: 1940; France Venue: Sono Luminus Studios, Boyce, Virginia Length: 3 Minutes 23 Secs.
