ABC Classics proudly presents violinist Emily Sun‘s debut album: Nocturnes – French music for violin and piano, featuring acclaimed pianist Andrea Lam.
Reaching no.1 on the ARIA Classical Charts and earning this 4.5 star review and ‘Pick of the Week’ in the Sydney Morning Herald (Spectrum) 17 July 2021:
“A gorgeous debut album of late Romantic French music… This is a winner on every count: the music itself, the individual playing, the expressive intensity, and the collaboration between the pair, who seem to breathe as one. Sun brings lush sound, firm attack and purity of tone to the deeply romantic and poetic Franck violin sonata. The pair have formidable rivals in the recordings of this sonata, but I will return often to this account… The other main piece is the Faure sonata, a gentler and more intimate work whose sophistication is often understated. Here the various complexities unfold naturally, idiomatically and beautifully.” Read the full review here.
For her debut solo album, brilliant young violinist Emily Sun has chosen music of passionate, intense beauty from the great French masters.
At the heart of the album are two of the cornerstones of the repertoire: César Franck’s deeply romantic Sonata for violin and piano, written as a wedding present for the renowned virtuoso Eugène Ysaÿe, and Gabriel Fauré’s magical First Violin Sonata, full of rapturous melodies and audaciously delicious harmonies.
Floating like silken threads around these masterworks are exquisite, dream-like miniatures: the moonlit beauty of Debussy’s Clair de lune, Fauré’s ravishing Après un rêve, and the yearning Nocturne by Lili Boulanger, one of the great poetic voices of French music. And to finish, the quintessential Parisian chanson La Vie en rose, made famous by the inimitable Édith Piaf.
Since first grabbing the world’s attention in the award-winning documentary Mrs Carey’s Concert, London-based Australian violinist Emily Sun has won the hearts of audiences around the world, winning both the UK Royal Overseas League Music Competition Gold Medal in 2016 and the ABC Young Performer of the Year competition in 2018. Earning critical acclaim for her concerto appearances in the USA, Europe and China as well as across Australia, Emily also performs recitals in the world’s leading concert venues, including London’s Wigmore Hall, Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, the Tchaikovsky Great Hall in Moscow and the Sydney Opera House.
For this recital disc, she is joined by award-winning New York-based Australian pianist Andrea Lam, a frequent guest at New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center who has performed with orchestras in Japan, New Zealand, Hong Kong and the United States, as well as all the major Australian Symphony Orchestras. A sensitive chamber collaborator, Andrea has performed in festivals and concert series around the world with cellist Matt Haimovitz, the Takács Quartet, the Australian String Quartet, the Claremont Trio and more.
Emily plays a 1760 Nicolò Gagliano violin, courtesy of the Beare’s International Violin Society.
More about the album: www.abc.net.au/classic/shop/emily-sun-andrea-lim-nocturnes/13366620?sf246870085
To stream or purchase: abcmusic.lnk.to/Nocturnes
In a special single release by ABC Classics, Emily and Andrea perform Kosma’s classic, ‘Autumn Leaves’ in a Latin-influenced arrangement by Daniel Rojas: enjoy it here!
More:
Louiguy’s ‘La vie en rose’ made famous by Edith Piaf, and here in a new arrangement by Tom Poster: https://www.facebook.com/abc.classic/videos/1263831877365881/
and also from the album, Fauré’s Après un rêve: www.facebook.com/abc.classic/videos/1117306315460435/
ABC Classic 100 Music you can’t live without clip: ‘Why is the Lark Ascending so beautiful?’
Limelight Magazine‘s August 2021 issue features an interview with Emily about her new album: read more here.