SINGING A NEW SONG

Following major competition successes, the US violinist Maria Ioudenitch has made her debut recording based on song arrangements treated with understated nuance. She tells Rita Fernandes about the forthcoming album

Russian-born American violinist Maria Ioudenitch graced the competition headlines so often in 2021 that The Strad quickly ran low on unique photos of her to publish. She scored a hat-trick of first prizes: at the Ysaÿe competition in July, the Tibor Varga in September and the Joseph Joachim in October. In the last, she won not only the coveted Joseph Joachim Award but also several of the additional special prizes, including the opportunity to record for Warner Classics – the result of which is her debut album, Songbird.

Ioudenitch is humble about her success, and agrees that her career is somewhat in a transition. A debut album at this juncture can provide a breakthrough in any young artist’s career. In Ioudenitch’s case, it wouldn’t be surprising to see her performing core repertoire with top orchestras in the near future. Yet for her debut album the 27-year-old deliberately avoided choosing the ‘big repertoire’. ‘I had to think of how best to present myself to a much wider audience than I’m used to,’ she says. ‘I thought the best way to do that is with something I care about and love.’

The album’s concept is simple: a collection of Ioudenitch’s favourite songs and songful instrumental works. ‘The human singing voice is something very dear to me. I’ve always admired it,’ she says. ‘During my childhood, my family would listen together to arias and operas. My grandfather would sit me down and put on twelve different recordings of the same aria, and then test me on who the singers were and which recordings were the best! So there’s some history there.’

NISSOR ABDOURAZAKOV

‘MY GRANDFATHER WOULD PUT ON TWELVE DIFFERENT RECORDINGS OF THE SAME ARIA, AND THEN TEST ME ON WHO THE SINGERS WERE’

It is also through family that Ioudenitch met the album’s American pianist, Kenny Broberg, her father’s former student. Ioudenitch approached Broberg in November 2021. ‘I deeply respect and admire his playing and thought he would be a great match for this. And he also loves listening to singers, so it was perfect.’ Not just the collaborative pianist on the album, Broberg also proposed the inclusion of two pieces originally written for solo piano by 20th-century Russian composer Nikolai Medtner, one of which he arranged: ‘His arrangement of the Canzona is beautiful. I’m very grateful to him for his hard work. He was always inspiring me with his playing.’

But dig deeper into the album’s seemingly simple theme, and you’ll find that there is considerable nuance in the selection and interpretation of the songs. ‘Some of the pieces are arrangements, and others are untouched songs, where I just play the vocal line. The rest are not actual songs but they’re very lyrical and I thought they would fit beautifully into the programme.’ The most substantial work on the album is Schubert’s Fantasy in C major for violin and piano, chosen because its central Andantino movement is the composer’s reworking of his own song Sei mir gegrüsst.

While many songs were new to her, some are familiar, including Tchaikovsky’s None but the Lonely Heart from Six Romances op.6. ‘It’s very close to my heart. I’ve seen an evolution in how I play and journey through the piece,’ says Ioudenitch. Among the new works is Nadia Boulanger’s Soleils couchants. Although Ioudenitch likens choosing a favourite song to ‘picking a favourite child’, she admits that this work is a particular highlight. ‘It speaks to me in a different way. It’s quite haunting. I tried to go for a sound that isn’t the typical singing sound, but more hushed, even raspy.’

Tonal variety is a focus throughout the album. The violin and piano piece by Clara Schumann is ‘rich and lyrical’, says Ioudenitch. ‘You can tap into a violin sound, which for me is a singing sound.’ The Robert Schumann (originally for oboe and piano) and the Fanny Mendelssohn are both, she says, much simpler. ‘Some of the others, like the Rachmaninoff or the Beach, for example, have more of a crying sound, like something a singer would go for.’ (Beach’s piece is another that was actually written for violin and piano.) ‘Then there’s the Schubert, which is more classical and instrumental.’

In Rachmaninoff’s Do Not Sing for Me, My Beauty from his Six Romances op.4, Ioudenitch takes the role of arranger for the first time. ‘It just sort of happened, and after recording it, I thought, “Did I really just put my own music on the album without experience?”! My favourite part of working on the Rachmaninoff, and quite frankly the rest of the programme, was finding a sound that resembles singing. How can I develop the sound in a way a singer would? How do I create consonants and vowels? How does text influence fingerings and bowings?’

She says of the Schubert Fantasy: ‘As the longest piece, this one needs a cohesive structure throughout. I was actually quite scared of it; it felt untouchable. It’s been recorded so many times. But my teacher Miriam Fried made me realise how joyful a piece it is, and that I just needed to let go and enjoy its virtuosity and grandeur. It clicked for me at that point.’ She also says that the piece, with its notoriously difficult piano part, was a nice way to ‘highlight Kenny’s brilliance and musicality’.

For the album’s final song, Richard Strauss’s ‘Morgen!’ (from Vier Lieder op.27), Ioudenitch and Broberg are joined by German soprano Theresa Pilsl. ‘The song acts as the ultimate culmination. In the whole album I am striving to sound like a voice and finally I have a singer next to me and I can be in her sound. It was so magical, and she is wonderful.’

Adebut album with Warner Classics was, understandably, a daunting prospect for Ioudenitch. The recording took place over four days in June at Berlin’s

Meistersaal and Emil Berliner Studios. Having expected a clinical approach to recording, Ioudenitch was pleasantly surprised at how ‘artistic’ the process was. ‘I had expected to hear things like: “You played out of tune, play that again,” but the overarching atmosphere was one of, “How can we fully give ourselves in service to the music?” Having similar goals and values was magical.’

The team also spontaneously organised, and recorded, a private concert at the end of the four days. ‘We actually used large chunks from the concert in the final recording, which surprised me. Even though recording was an artistic process, there’s still something extra special about playing for people in front of you.’

As for the Meistersaal as a recording venue: ‘I couldn’t imagine a better place. I could let go and be fully in the music. And the space was gorgeous to look at, so that helped.’ She and Broberg were playing in the main hall, equipped with a TV and speakers to communicate with the recording team a floor down. ‘It was a lot of fun. We would record a bit, then run down to listen and chat, have a coffee, then run back up again. It was a nice way to relieve our stress!’ says Ioudenitch.

‘It’s always been a dream of mine to record an album. And with Warner giving me quite a lot of freedom, I was able to realise that dream.’ She also says there was no specific mission in mind with the recording – no explicit desire to flaunt her virtuosity or impress a certain crowd. After all, at only 27 and with such a formidable CV, time is on her side when it comes to recording staple repertoire. ‘I’m making no statement other than that I have such a deep love for these pieces,’ she says. ‘All I wanted was to highlight the special relationship between the voice and the violin, while introducing rarely heard works and sharing another side of the ones we already know and love.’ 

Maria Ioudenitch at the recording sessions in Berlin’s Meistersaal

WARNER CLASSICS

WORKS Beach Romance op.23 N. Boulanger Soleils couchants Glinka L’Alouette (arr. Auer from Balakirev’s pf transcr. of orig. song from A Farewell to St Petersburg) Medtner Canzona matinata op.39 no.4 (arr. Broberg); Fairy Tale op.20 no.1 (arr. Heifetz) Fanny Mendelssohn Erwin op.7 no.2 Rachmaninoff Do Not Sing for Me, My Beauty op.4 no.4 (arr. Ioudenitch) Schubert Fantasy in C major D934 C. Schumann Romance no.1 (Three Romances op.22) R. Schumann Romance no.2 (Three Romances op.94) Strauss Morgen! op.27 no.4 Tchaikovsky None but the Lonely Heart op.6 no.6 (arr. Elman) ARTISTS Maria Ioudenitch (vn) Kenny Broberg (pf) Theresa Pilsl (sop) RECORDING VENUE Meistersaal/ Emil Berliner Studios, Berlin, Germany RECORDING DATES 3–6 June 2022 CATALOGUE NO Warner Classics 5419737407 RELEASE DATE 24 March 2023 (digital singles from 6 January 2023)