RECORDINGS
ENCIRCLING (2024) Acis Productions
Encircling is a defining recording of four important twentieth century works for viola and piano composed by French and British women.
Violist Daphne Gerling and pianist Tomoko Kashiwagi perform works associated with the Berkshire Composition Competition sponsored by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge (1864–1953), pianist and patron of music.
The four female composers on this album have received relatively little attention. Pioneering violist and composer Rebecca Clarke (1886–1979) is probably the most well-known, and the album “encircles” her legacy as a departure point for discovering other brilliant female contemporaries who wrote original works for viola. Her work is represented by her less well-known Passacaglia on an Old English Tune, poignant with its composition after the Fall of France and before the US entered WW2 at Pearl Harbor, when Britain stood alone against Nazi Germany. Her fellow Brit, Dorothy Fox (1894–1934) died tragically, and this is the world premiere recording of her Sonata for Viola and Piano (1927) despite it being published and receiving a broadcast during the BBC’s second year of radio operations. French composers Marcelle Soulage (1894–1970) and Hélène Fleury Roy (1876–1957) were fêted during their lives: Soulage won second prize at the 1921 “Salon des Musiciens Français” for the Sonata (1919) recorded for this album, and Fleury Roy was notably the first woman to win the “Prix de Rome”. Despite these distinctions, this is only the second time these works have been commercially recorded.
Daphne Gerling and Tomoko Kashiwagi have toured venues throughout the US, (Texas, Georgia, Arkansas, Alabama), Canada, and have had the honor of being featured in recitals at the International Viola Congresses in Thailand and Brazil.
Acis founder Geoffrey Silver says, “Acis is proud to introduce brilliant recordings of powerful works written by women and performed by leading female artists of our time, to the diet of the discerning listener. The viola as a solo instrument is often overlooked, and this recording is another example of how this rich strand of concert music is long overdue a thorough exploration. Beautifully supported by Tomoko Kashiwagi, Daphne Gerling brings both her scholarship and performing credentials to the table in spades.”
"Gerling and Kashiwagi are outstanding ambassadors for this body of music." - Jonathan Woolf
"Clarke, Fox, Soulage, and Fleury-Roy could have asked for no better and more sympathetic interpreters for their music than Gerling and Kashiwagi." (Textura.org)
Encircling is a defining recording of four important twentieth century works for viola and piano composed by French and British women.
Violist Daphne Gerling and pianist Tomoko Kashiwagi perform works associated with the Berkshire Composition Competition sponsored by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge (1864–1953), pianist and patron of music.
The four female composers on this album have received relatively little attention. Pioneering violist and composer Rebecca Clarke (1886–1979) is probably the most well-known, and the album “encircles” her legacy as a departure point for discovering other brilliant female contemporaries who wrote original works for viola. Her work is represented by her less well-known Passacaglia on an Old English Tune, poignant with its composition after the Fall of France and before the US entered WW2 at Pearl Harbor, when Britain stood alone against Nazi Germany. Her fellow Brit, Dorothy Fox (1894–1934) died tragically, and this is the world premiere recording of her Sonata for Viola and Piano (1927) despite it being published and receiving a broadcast during the BBC’s second year of radio operations. French composers Marcelle Soulage (1894–1970) and Hélène Fleury Roy (1876–1957) were fêted during their lives: Soulage won second prize at the 1921 “Salon des Musiciens Français” for the Sonata (1919) recorded for this album, and Fleury Roy was notably the first woman to win the “Prix de Rome”. Despite these distinctions, this is only the second time these works have been commercially recorded.
Daphne Gerling and Tomoko Kashiwagi have toured venues throughout the US, (Texas, Georgia, Arkansas, Alabama), Canada, and have had the honor of being featured in recitals at the International Viola Congresses in Thailand and Brazil.
Acis founder Geoffrey Silver says, “Acis is proud to introduce brilliant recordings of powerful works written by women and performed by leading female artists of our time, to the diet of the discerning listener. The viola as a solo instrument is often overlooked, and this recording is another example of how this rich strand of concert music is long overdue a thorough exploration. Beautifully supported by Tomoko Kashiwagi, Daphne Gerling brings both her scholarship and performing credentials to the table in spades.”
"Gerling and Kashiwagi are outstanding ambassadors for this body of music." - Jonathan Woolf
"Clarke, Fox, Soulage, and Fleury-Roy could have asked for no better and more sympathetic interpreters for their music than Gerling and Kashiwagi." (Textura.org)
