Echoes of Exile (SACD)

Sueye Park is no stranger to solo violin concertos. Following her recording of the Paganini Caprices (jpc 7806188) and a concerto entitled "Journey through a Century" (jpc 10572267), both of which were highly praised by critics, she now presents us with another solo project: "Echoes of Exile", an endeavor that finds its raison d'être in today's turbulent times. Park offers us different perspectives on the theme of exile with works composed between the 1920s and 1950s, both by great composers who had to leave their country due to political circumstances and by others who went into internal exile. Two pieces by composers who left their homeland for artistic reasons, George Enescu and Eugène Ysaÿe, frame three important and very different works by composers who had to go into exile either because their existence was threatened or because of a feeling of alienation in their respective countries. The works by Béla Bartók and Paul Ben-Haim show composers who, in their longing for their homeland, succeeded not only in emphasizing the value of their culture even more strongly, but also in anchoring it in their new environment. Bernd Alois Zimmermann's sonata, with its unique expressive language, reveals the worries and hardships of a young composer in the devastated Germany of the post-war period. With "Echoes of Exile", violinist Sueye Park unfolds a sonorous panorama of uprootedness. Between Ysaÿe's introspective "Malinconia", Bartók's agitated resistance, Ben-Haim's Jewish melancholy and Zimmermann's existential rift, an arc of forced alienation and inner flight emerges. Park's flawless technique, her brilliant tone and the wonderful precision of her phrasing make this album a poignant testimony to pain, memory and artistic integrity. (German Record Critics' Award 4 / 2025 / For the jury: Bernhard Hartmann)