Silenced [CD]

Winner of the 2009 ARD International Music Competition, violinist Hyeyoon Park has made a name for herself as a soloist and chamber musician, performing with the likes of Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, London Philharmonic Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Kian Soltani, Timothy Ridout and Benjamin Grosvenor. On her first album for Linn, Silenced, she partners Gergely Madaras and WDR Sinfonieorchester in a beautiful programme that showcases two composers who were at odds with the system in place. Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto was banned for it's 'formalist distortions' and only premiered in 1955 after Stalin's death. Refusing to join the Nazi-aligned Kultuurkamer, Dutch composer Henriette Bosmans' work was banned. Her Concert Piece for Violin and Orchestra, composed in grief, is introspective and bitter in tone. A youthful academic exercise, Shostakovich's Variations Op. 3 brings the album to a rumbustious end.