Preorder Miranda Cuckson on Vinyl!

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Jun 052024
 

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“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 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.

 

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

‘melting the darkness’

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Sep 222014
 

Now Available Directly From Urlicht AudioVisual

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This album ventures into regions of the art of violin-playing the significance of which is now becoming clear. Devoted entirely to microtonal compositions for violin and pieces for violin with electronics, this CD explores works of seven composers who have been challenged by these areas of discovery to create intriguingly fresh and surprising sound worlds.

Since turning much attention in recent years to the music being written in my own time, I have found it fascinating to explore certain areas of experimentation that have taken my instrument beyond the familiar glories of its heritage. One of these is the use of microtonality- a system of intervals involving distances smaller than the half-step (the keys on a piano). I have been intrigued by both the physical aspects of working with such intervals, and the idiosyncratic ways in which composers use such intervals for their own expressive aims. Another interest has been noise- that is, non-pitched sounds, often percussive or abrasive, produced by unusual techniques on the instrument. A third area I’ve been eager to explore has been music involving electronics. Since electronic music’s beginnings, using spliced reel-to-reel tapes decades ago, the possibilities of the technology have exploded so that there are numerous ways in which to create or generate sounds and to interact, as a live performer, with them. This has led to a palette of sound possibilities and a degree of agility of response often not offered by traditional instruments.

— Miranda Cuckson

Miranda Cuckson is the leading exponent of new music for the violin on this side of the Atlantic, and is beginning to make waves as well in Europe. Her two previous recordings for Urlicht AudioVisual, featuring some of the most demanding modern-era works for violin by Luigi Nono, Elliott Carter, Roger Sessions, and Jason Eckardt, have met with unanimous critical acclaim from the music press.

Miranda herself selected the repertoire and produced “melting the darkness“, assembling a program of solo microtonal violin works and music for solo violin with electronics microtonal that showcases a wide range of styles and moods. The program begins with Xenakis‘ revolutionary Mikka S, a daunting microtonal masterpiece “duo” for solo violin, and the world premiere recording of Georg Friedrich Haas‘s “de terrae fine” in the version for solo violin. Five world premiere recordings round out the program: Oscar Bianchi‘s “Semplice“, Christopher Burns‘ “Come Ricordi Come Sogni Come Echi“, Alexander Sigman‘s “Vurtruvurt“, Ileana Perez-Velasquez‘s “un ser con unas alas enormes“, and Robert Rowe‘s “Melting the Darkness“. Recorded and mixed by her frequent artistic collaborator and electronic music wizard Richard Warp, each work is framed in a unique acoustic environment that brings each work into vivid relief.


Order the CD directly from Urlicht AudioVisual – $14.99 [simpleecommcart_add_to_cart id=”14″]

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melting the darkness

Iannis Xenakis: Mikka S
Georg Friedrich Haas: de terrae fine
Oscar Bianchi: Semplice
Christopher Burns: Come Ricordi Come Sogni Come Echi
Alexander Sigman: VURTRUVURT
Ileana Perez-Velasquez: un ser con unas alas enormes
Robert Rowe: Melting the Darkness

Miranda Cuckson, violin

Produced by Miranda Cuckson
Engineered by Paul Geluso
Mixed and edited by Richard Warp
Recorded at James L. Dolan Recording Studio, New York University, New York City, 2011-2013

Urlicht AudioVisual UAV-CD-5998

CD release date: November 4, 2014
Blu-Ray Audio release in January 2015