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Naxos has just released a CD of Bolcom’s complete Violin Sonatas, composed over almost 40 years, featuring husband-and-wife team Solomia Soroka and pianist Arthur Greene.  The Second Sonata (1978) was inspired partly by jazz fiddler Joe Venuti.  Bolcom has described his highly dramatic Third Sonata as “stramba (weird) . . . Its last movement shares a mood somewhere between the darker tangos of Astor Piazzolla and Arabic music.”

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In a ClassicsToday.com review, Jed Distler wrote of this recording: “William Bolcom's two-piano oeuvre fully reveals his uncanny facility for assimilating the nuts and bolts of any musical style or genre that crosses his composing table . . .  I can't imagine he'd be less than ecstatic over the Bergmann duo's caring, refined, and meticulously worked-out interpretations.”

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The selection of songs on this GRAMMY-nominated CD, chosen by Farley, include several world premiere recordings and cover forty years of Bolcom’s writing for both concert and theatre.  Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times praised the disc, noting that “ (e)ven songs that seem just novelties on the surface are musically subtle . . . Ms. Farley handles the popular-tinged songs stylishly . . . That Mr. Bolcom plays with such elegance and authority is no surprise.” 

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This landmark recording of William Bolcom’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience recently won three GRAMMY Awards: Best Classical Album (awarded to the performers and producer), Best Choral Performance (awarded to the choral directors and orchestral conductor), and Best Classical Contemporary Composition (awarded to the composer). 

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