Suites & Sweets, the saccharinely titled album by violinist
Jessica Mathaes and pianist Rodney Waters, offers listeners chestnuts like
Stravinsky's Suite Italienne drawn from his opera Pulcinella, and de Falla's feisty Suite Populaire Espagnole as well as other fine examples of the suite in the rarely (if ever) performed
Henry Cowell Suite and
Erich Korngold's Suite from his incidental music to Much Ado About Nothing. For listeners who have not had the pleasure to hear these latter two works, this album is worthwhile for them alone.
Cowell's Suite in particular combines his keen and underappreciated knack for melody writing along with his well-known, unique harmonization techniques.
Korngold's, also no stranger to writing lush, singing melodies, is perhaps more abstract when thought of as incidental music, but it displays very idiomatic writing for violin and piano. The two "sweets" on the album --
Ravel's Pièce en forme de Habanera and
Massenet's Meditation from Thaïs -- should be considered for what they really are on the album: filler.
Mathaes' playing is technically quite proficient, though the demanding finale of Suite Italienne appears to pose some difficulties. Musically,
Mathaes gives listeners a solid though perhaps unremarkable interpretation of the four suites. Character changes little when moving from composer to composer; tone is sometimes lacking in depth and richness, particularly in the slower, more soulful movements.