Violinist Yevgeny Kutik Releases New Album

Russian-American violinist Yevgeny Kutik, known for his “dark-hued tone and razor-sharp technique” (The New York Times), will release his next album, Words Fail, on Marquis Classics on October 28, 2016. 

Kutik was inspired to create Words Fail following musings on Hans Christian Andersen’s well-known adage, “where words fail, music speaks,” best encapsulated by Mendelssohn’s iconic Songs Without Words. In this album, Kutik uses Mendelssohn's songs as a starting point to expand upon the idea that music surpasses traditional language in its expressive capabilities. Words Fail, recorded with pianist John Novacek, includes three of Mendelssohn’s songs, Tchaikovsky’s Song without Words, a rarely heard arrangement of Mahler’s Adagietto from Symphony No. 5, Prokofiev’s Five Melodies Op. 35, Messiaen’s Thème et variations, Lera Auerbach’s T'filah (Prayer), plus two works Kutik commissioned for the album: Words Fail for violin and piano by Timo Andres, with Andres performing the piano part and Arioso Doloroso/Estatico for solo violin by Michael Gandolfi. The digital version includes Stravinsky’s Pastorale and Wagner’s Albumblatt as bonus tracks. Yevgeny Kutik and composer/pianist Timo Andres will perform music from the album, including the world premiere of Gandolfi’s Arioso Doloroso/Estatico and the New York premiere of Andres’ Words Fail, on Wednesday, October 19, 2016 at National Sawdust.

Kutik has captivated audiences worldwide with an old-world sound that communicates a modern intellect. Praised for his technical precision and virtuosity, he is also lauded for his poetic and imaginative interpretations of standard works as well as rarely heard and newly composed repertoire. Words Fail follows Yevgeny Kutik’s 2014 album, Music from the Suitcase: A Collection of Russian Miniatures(Marquis Classics), which features music he found in his family’s suitcase after immigrating to the United States from the Soviet Union in 1990. Music from the Suitcase debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard Classical chart, garnered critical acclaim, and was featured on NPR's All Things Considered and in The New York Times. Kutik’s 2012 debut album, Sounds of Defiance (Marquis Classics), features the music of Achron, Pärt, Schnittke, and Shostakovich, focusing on music written during the darkest periods of the lives of these composers.

Of Words Fail, Kutik says, “Music never fails to be the most truthful communicator of my barest emotions – it has the ability to bypass our inner circuitry and tap right into the source of our spirit. This album meditates on this experience that we all share, when a wellspring of thoughts inside you drowns your ability to articulate them – when words fail – by both considering existing repertoire in the context of ‘wordless song,’ and through two new works by Michael Gandolfi and Timo Andres that highlight this never-ending, timeless struggle.”

Timo Andres’ Words Fail uses the descending four-note incipit of the first of Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words, transforming it into what Kutik describes as “something that seems both folk-like and occasionally medieval.” Of Kutik and Andres' premiere of Words Fail at The Phillips Collection, The Washington Post wrote, “The violinist may have reserved his most insightful playing for the premiere of Words Fail, a one-movement song without words he commissioned from Andres. From a descending lament, the work slowly gathers power through overlapping variations, becoming darker, more ambiguous and more complex before building to a soaring climax. Kutik and Andres gave a persuasive, deeply thoughtful reading to this involving new work.”

Gandolfi uses the same descending four note melodic material from the first Mendelssohn Song for his Arioso Doloroso/Estatico. Kutik notes that Gandolfi’s decision to write this work for unaccompanied violin highlights the gravity, solitude, and timeless wisdom evoked by the timbre of the solo violin. Gandolfi explains, “My method was to include the ‘deliverer’ of the words, the human voice, in this notion - i.e., to construct a piece that begins in a vocal range, with vocal-quality contours, and progresses to an instrumental outburst that overtakes those constraints, not in a display of virtuosity for its own sake, but born from a musical fervor that can only be realized through the unique qualities of instrumental writing.”

Yevgeny Kutik: Words Fail | Marquis Classics | Release Date: October 28, 2016
1-3. Songs Without Words Op. 19, No.1; Op. 62, No. 6; Op. 67, No. 2 - Felix Mendelssohn (arr. Friedrich Hermann)
4. Adagietto from Symphony No. 5 - Gustav Mahler (arr. Robert Wittinger)
5 Arioso Doloroso/Estatico - Michael Gandolfi
6. Words Fail - Timo Andres
7. Song Without Words - Pyotr IlyichTchaikovsky (arr. Fritz Kreisler)
8-12. Five Melodies Op. 35bis - Sergei Prokofiev
13. Thème et variations - Olivier Messiaen
14. T'filah (Prayer) for solo violin - Lera Auerbach

Bonus Tracks: (digital release only)
15. Pastorale - Igor Stravinsky (arr. Samuel Dushkin)
16. Albumblatt - Richard Wagner (arr. August Wilhelmj)