Switchback: Contemporary American Duos For Violin And Piano – Caroline Eva Chin

Modern American music has long been characterised by kaleidoscopic variety, reflecting the vigour and optimism of American culture more generally. John Corigliano’s early Violin Sonata is a work of the mid-twentieth century. But his own assessment of the piece – ‘Its eclecticism, its rhythmic energy, and its bright character give the Sonata a very American quality’ – could be applied with equal merit to the three 21st-century scores that accompany it here, all four switching easily between gentle introspection and spirited exuberance.