*****
The title of this CD is slightly misleading. It suggests a disc full of film music, but in fact what you really get is two brilliant violin concerti and a movie theme. If you remember that tremendous 2011 Australian documentary film Mrs Carey’s Concert about a private girls’ school’s concert held at the Sydney Opera House and its lead-up at the school, you’ll certainly remember the stand-out schoolgirl violinist, Emily Sun.
Well, Emily is all grown up now and is currently violin professor at the Royal College of Music in London. Since she shot to fame on that documentary, Emily has played all over the world, from Buckingham Palace to the Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow. But she’s not entirely lost to us happily. This year she’s Artist in Association with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and with them has just released a world premiere recording of Elena Kats-Chernin’s Violin Concerto Fantasie im Wintergarten through ABC Classics.
It’s an extraordinary three movement work which covers the gamut of emotions from light-hearted jollity to a deep sense of foreboding. It is a perfect vehicle for Emily to display her undoubted virtuosity. Coupled with this on the CD is Erich Korngold’s Violin Concerto in D major with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and the John Williams theme from the move, Schindler’s List with the Melbourne Symphony.
This is violin playing at its very best from another young Australian who has taken their musical talents to the world.
Film Fantasia
Emily Sun, violin
ABC Classics ABCL0102
– Michael Morton-Evans