“Recording of the Month”: Chase’s Concerti by Bate and Bell

Violist Roger Chase’s recording of concerti by Stanley Bate, W.H. Bell and Vaughan Williams was chosen as a “Recording of the Month” by MusicWeb-International.com. Critic Michael Cookson singled out the Dutton Epoch release (CDLX 7216) as “A fine recording that will help promote these forgotten works. I believe the Stanley Bate Viola Concerto to be an outstanding score deserving of acclaim.”

Similarly Fanfare (which reviewed the disc twice last year) called it “a winner of a disc,” praised Chase’s “narrow, burnished tone that is among the finest I’ve heard in recent years” and declared “it is the Bate Concerto which makes this an extraordinary and unmissable release.”

The English player’s latest recital recording is “The Tertis Tradition” with pianist Michiko Otaki, another Dutton release which received a rave review in the current issue of Fanfare: “Chase makes a splendid case for the instrument... Chase plays it [Rubbra’s Meditation] with conviction . . . I was most pleased to make acquaintance with three of these pieces and I was especially delighted to hear Chase's playing. This recording may make my next Want List.”

Gramophone calls the recording of Bax, Bliss, Bowen, Rubbra and Vaughan Williams “An appealing programme played on the master's own instrument... Indeed, Chase and his recital partner, Michiko Otaki, forge a most stylish, intuitive alliance throughout... unforced musicality, seasoned authority and very real sense of teamwork ...a very likeable and thoroughly recommendable anthology.”

The current American Record Guide writes “Again it is a pleasure to hear from Roger Chase . . . Chase has assembled a very find recital and shown the importance of Tertis, not only as someone who broadened the technical and expressive boundaries of his instrument, but as an inspiration to important composers.”

The next addition to the Chase/Otaki discography is a Naxos release, “The Virtuoso Viola,” a deliciously varied musical feast available February 23^rd, featuring music by Arthur Benjamin, George Enescu, Joseph Jongen, Henry Vieuxtemps, Nicolo Paganini and Fritz Kreisler. Forthcoming later this year is an all-Brahms disc on Centaur.

Roger Chase is featured at the Tucson Chamber Music Festival this March, performing works of Harbison, Britten, Kodály, Brahms, Ravel, Chausson, David Alpher, and a world-premiere Trio for flute, viola and harp by Patrick Zimmerli.

He recently performed a Brahms’ Quintet and Sextet at Northwestern University with cellist Lynn Harrell, and the Schubert “Trout” Quintet with the Pilgrim Chamber Players in Chicago. With the Calisto Ensemble he performed “Eclipse” for string quartet by Brett Dean, an Australian composer who won the 2009 Grawemeyer Prize, and Sir Arnold Bax’s 1906 Trio.

In Florida in March Chase performs works by Robert Schumann, Brahms, Malcolm Arnold, Arthur Benjamin and Frederick Delius with Michiko Otaki at the Heritage Museum in Tarpon Springs (March 21) and the Trinity United Methodist Church in Bradenton (March 22). The duo reunite in Chicago for a recital on April 23^rd for Mostly Music Chicago featuring Delius, Bax, Arnold and Rebecca Clarke.

In Mr. Chase heads to Beijing to judge the 1^st International China Violin Making Competition, where he will also perform the W.H. Bell Concerto, which he recorded and gave the modern-day premiere in South Africa last year, thanks to the realization of the score and parts by Michiko Otaki. This summer the star violist will be playing and teaching at the Bowdoin International Music Festival.

Roger Chase’s website: www.rogerchase.com.