Coming in May from Urlicht AudioVisual: Miranda Cuckson on Vinyl!

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Apr 042024
 

I have had the privilege and pleasure of working with Miranda Cuckson for over a decade, and take particular pride in her recordings for Urlicht AudioVisual. With the resurgence of the LP format, it is high time to showcase her exceptional insight and talent on vinyl.” – Gene Gaudette

Violinist Miranda Cuckson has achieved international recognition as America’s leading proponent of new music for the violin. Her career delighting audiences as soloist and collaborator in a wide range of music spans three decades, and her recordings for Urlicht AudioVisual, ECM Records, and Centaur have been received with consistently high critical praise.

This newest release from Urlicht AudioVisual marks Miranda’s LP debut, and features three works closely associated with her on two very distinctive LP sides.

Stewart Goodyear‘s “Solo; A Suite for Solo Violin”, commissioned for Miranda and debuted in 2022, comprises one side of the LP – five strongly contrasting movements in one engaging and delightful tonal-centric work drawing not only on on traditional classical forms but Caribbean-influenced melody and rhythm, reflecting Goodyear’s ancestral heritage.

The other side features two pivotal postwar works for solo violin: Iannis Xenakis‘s “Mikka S“, a breakthrough work with microtonal glissandi and dynamic voicings that places it among the most challenging in the violin repertoire, and Franco Donatoni‘s “Argot“, a work drawing on minimalism and late-20th-century European avant-garde styles, with moods that are at once playful and intense.

The unique jacket design showcases both sides of the LP with individual front covers.

This limited-edition release utilizes Direct Metal Mastering for maximum fidelity to the original high-definition sources and is pressed on 180-gram audiophile-quality vinyl by Precision Record Pressing, and includes an insert with complete liner notes and credits.

The Miranda Cuckson LP is scheduled for release on May `17, 2024.

You can download a .pdf of the release sheet here.

“rigor and grace, violence and gentleness…”

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May 242014
 


Christian Carey
 reviews the newest CD from Miranda Cuckson and Blair McMillen:

Violinist Miranda Cuckson and pianist Blair McMillen have already proven themselves an estimable duo for works by American Modernists such as Shapey and Martino. Their latest outing features Elliott Carter’s Duo for Violin and Piano (1973)… a rendition that juxtaposes rigor and grace, violence and gentleness… Clocking in at over thirty minutes, [the Sessions Sonata for solo violin] is a bear of a piece, demanding both virtuosity and considerable thoughtfulness from the violinist to bring it off: Cuckson has both in spades. … [Eckardt’s Styrömkarl] is vividly characterful and a real workout for the performers; one they assay handily.


Elliott CarterDuo for violin and piano (1973) [21:56]
Roger SessionsSonata for solo violin (1953)
1. Tempo moderato, con ampiezza, e liberamente [10:53]
2. Molto vivo [6:57]
3. Adagio e dolcemente [10:22]
4. Alla Marcia vivace[4:53]
Jason EckardtStrömkarl [12:51]

Miranda Cuckson, violin
Blair McMillen, piano

Produced by Gene Gaudette
Engineered and edited by Ryan Streber, Oktaven Audio

CD Edition: Urlicht AudioVisual UAV-5989
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