From an Empty Room

Prokofiev: Sonata for Solo Violin; plus works by Albéniz, Beamish, JF Brown, Brustad, Cresswell, Igudesman, D Matthews, Telemann and Wallen

Sara Trickey (violin)

First Hand Records FHR 139 53:30 mins Committing to disc repertoire she shared online during the Covid pandemic, Sara Trickey has curated a wonderfully ‘eclectic and unusual’ album. Trickey is a commanding advocate for her chosen repertoire, which spans the years 1735-2021. From an

Empty Room includes ten works, of which those by Sally Beamish, James Francis Brown, Lyell Cresswell and Errollyn Wallen are premiere recordings.

Trickey’s Telemann is authoritative and stylish, and her Prokofiev is ebullient. Among music by string-playing composers, in the first movement of Bjarne Brustad’s Fanitulsuite Trickey evokes a similar warmth of sound and expression as the work’s dedicatee, Camilla Wicks. Folk elements are also discernible in Sally Beamish’s The Wise Maid, transcribed from an earlier incarnation for viola. Trickey finds great depth of sonority in

David Matthews’s birthday prelude and Cresswell’s lamenting Lento. Wallen’s Bertha, commissioned by Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet for a short film, juxtaposes the timbres of violin and handpan, a convex steel drum. As demonstrated here, this highly evocative and idiomatic work is a welcome addition to the repertoire. While Jane Gillie’s transcription of Isaac Albéniz’s ‘Asturias’ from the Suite Española, Op. 47 is convincing and well played, its repetitive material doesn’t entice as the album’s opening track. Nonetheless, in Aleksey Igudesman’s Applemania, Trickey effectively captures its frenetic moto perpetuo qualities in this arresting finale to her album. Amidst stylistic versatility, Trickey’s album also serves as a testament to the creativity of contemporary British music. Ingrid Pearson PERFORMANCE ★★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★★