Because of the violin's close identification with the human voice, its use in songlike compositions is quite common. Yevgeny Kutik's program on this 2016 Marquis release reflects the lyrical aspects of the violin, in several songs without words and other chamber pieces with a strong melodic component. Yet the album's title, Words Fail, suggests that when words cannot convey the proper sentiment, music takes over. All of Kutik's selections convey this sense of pushing past the limitations of verbal expressions and letting the melodic line carry emotions through its changing shapes, intervals, dynamics, and tone colors. To the extent that this is a highly melodic album, even the modernist pieces by Sergey Prokofiev, Olivier Messiaen, and Lera Auerbach are flowing and quite listenable, though the more familiar songs without words of Felix Mendelssohn and Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, as well as the violin and piano arrangement of the Adagietto from Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 5, are immediately accessible. Two works commissioned by Kutik receive premiere recordings here, Michael Gandolfi's Arioso Doloroso/Estatico and Timo Andres' Words Fail, so the repertoire has been expanded with two more poetic studies that go beyond mere words. Marquis' recorded sound is focused and clear, and Kutik has close-up presence, especially in his solos.
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