Jennifer Koh & Jamie Laredo - Two x Four (2014)

Renowned violinists Jennifer Koh and her distinguished mentor Jaime Laredo illuminate captivating connections between student and teacher, and composers across the centuries, in Two x Four, an album of four double-violin concertos, performed with the Curtis 20/21 Ensemble conducted by Vinay Parameswaran. This is the first album on which the two internationally acclaimed and distinctively different violinists have appeared together. The compositional touchstone is J.S. Bachs Violin Concerto in D minor, BWV 1043, an innovative work that introduced new ways for two solo violins to converse with each other and with orchestra. Koh and Laredo leap from the Baroque to the late 20th-century for Philip Glasss attractive, hypnotically undulating Echorus on the theme of compassion. It was written for the great Yehudi Menuhin and his protégé, Edna Mitchell. Two new works commissioned expressly for the project receive world premiere recordings. Anna Clynes impressionistic Prince of Clouds is a winner...This is music one can listen to again and again and find new things to appreciate each time (Chicago Tribune). David Ludwigs evocative Seasons Lost, a contemporary counterpart to Vivaldis Four Seasons, is full of beautiful ideas contrasting with playful/menacing Vivaldian gestures (Philadelphia Inquirer). Two x Four mirrors the performers groundbreaking concert program of the same name, which they recently toured across the U.S. They performed all four concertos from the CD in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C., and selections in Los Angeles, Chicago, and beyond. Time Out New York calls the project intrepid violinist Jennifer Kohs latest programming brainstorm. Two x Four Equals Sublime, proclaimed Philadelphias LocalArtsLive. Producer is multiple Grammy Award winner Judith Sherman. The 20-page CD booklet includes the thorough liner notes that consumers have come to expect from Cedille Records. Record buyers are already aware of Kohs keen instincts for connecting Bach with later composers through her Cedille album Bach and Beyond Part 1, named one of the best recordings of 2012 by the New York Times. Two x Four is Kohs ninth album for Chicago-based Cedille. Her Cedille discography includes the Grammy-nominated String Poetic. Koh performs worldwide as a recitalist, chamber musician, and orchestral soloist. Her tour schedule for the first half of 2014 includes, in chronological order, Tokyo; Milwaukee, Wis.; Cincinnati, Ohio; New York (Miller Theater and Carnegie Hall); Düsseldorf, Germany; Aspen, Colo.; Metz, France; Berlin, Germany; Lahti, Finland; Santa Fe, NM; Los Angeles (a Two x Four concert); Bryn Mawr (Philadelphia), Pa.; Birmingham, Ala. (a Two x Four concert); Santa Barbara, Calif; Traverse City, Mich.; Colombia, Mo.; and Stamford, Conn. Laredos half-century on the concert stage includes performances in twenty-eight countries on five continents, including appearances as a member of the revered Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. The New Yorker says, "He has everything a virtuoso violinist needs. But he has more than that. He is a violinist of profound musicianship." Laredo earned a Grammy Award for his Sony Classical album of Brahms Piano Quartets with Emmanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma, and Isaac Stern. Two x Four is Laredos Cedille label debut.