A debut solo album focuses on three intriguing female composers
The Strad Issue: June 2025
Description: A debut solo album focuses on three intriguing female composers
Musicians: Katrina Lee (violin)
Works: Beamish: The Wise Maid. Eckhardt-Gramatté: Ten Caprices. Maconchy: Six Miniatures
Catalogue number: DELPHIAN DCD34338
If Katrina Lee’s name is relatively new to you, know that she’s currently principal second violin with the Scottish Ballet orchestra, as well as a lecturer at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s strings faculty. Musically, she has a particular interest in exploring historically overlooked composers as this, her debut album, reveals.
Dominating the album duration-wise are the late-Romantic-style Ten Caprices by Russian-born Canadian Sophie-Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatté (1899–1974). They form a sequence of portraits whose subject matter ranges from emotive life events to travel postcards and are considerably larger scale than their title suggests. Lee puts her bright 2003 ‘del Gesù’-inspired Andrew Fairfax instrument to effective use in bringing out their flamboyance, expressiveness and folky elements and although they sometimes slightly overstay their welcome, they’re undoubtedly attractive.
Elizabeth Maconchy’s Six Miniatures have a similarly folky feel and expressivity, but are altogether more concise. Separating them, Sally Beamish’s genuinely miniature set of variations, The Wise Maid, based on the Irish folk tune, is a fun palate-cleanser with its leaping, double-stopped writing. The recording, made in Edinburgh’s Robin Chapel, is close yet revels in the space’s resonance. Add in Lee’s bold playing and bright violin, and it’s quite an intense listen overall. Yet these are accomplished performances of fascinating music.
CHARLOTTE GARDNER
Read: Sally Beamish to receive OBE
Read: No more excuses - Sally Beamish
Read: Arranging Debussy’s La Mer for piano trio by Sally Beamish
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