An American violin pioneer's legacy goes on record

From the moment she picked up the instrument at age three, the voice of the violin really spoke to Rachel Barton Pine. By age 10, she was performing with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and winning major music competitions. When it comes to her music, Barton Pine has always taken the road less traveled. She's equally comfortable playing classical music and reworkings of her favorite heavy metal tunes. She displayed the "cool" side of the violin by performing her own arrangement of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at two Chicago Bulls playoff games and at the Democratic National Convention in 1996. Barton Pine is a trail blazer who is confident people will like classical music if they give it a try.

The violinist whom Barton Pine most admires was also a musical ambassador.

Although she avidly researches violin music and history, Barton Pine had never heard of Maud Powell until 1995, when she received a biography from the founder of Powell's Society for Music and Education. Now not a day goes by without Barton Pine giving thought to the impact Maud Powell has had on American music. Her 12th recording, "American Virtuosa," is a tribute to this great American violinist of the late 19th century.

Maud Powell believed her duty as an artist was to reach her audience no matter how educated they were about classical music. She succeeded in her mission by playing music that appealed to everyone. She chose familiar, lighter compositions, often spicing them up with her own exquisite, virtuoso arrangements. Many of the pieces she transcribed are musical gems by composers she knew personally, such as Jules Massenet and Percy Grainger, as well as Jean Sibelius and Antonin Dvorak, whose violin concertos she premiered in America. "American Virtuosa" features pieces by each of these European composers.

Throughout her career, Powell also focused on new works by American composers. When asked why she played so much American music, she replied, "How can we expect to have any national music if someone does not play these works publicly?"

Many American composers dedicated works to Powell in hopes she would premiere them, including Herman Bellstedt, Jr., a cornet virtuoso in John Philip Sousa's band. He turned a minstrel song from the Civil War into a blistering solo violin showpiece for Powell. She was so impressed with Bellstedt's "Dixie" that she said it was worthy of the great violin virtuoso Paganini. With lightning speed and a bright smile, Rachel Barton Pine sails through this challenging, high-spirited arrangement.

John Philip Sousa's rousing marches are proof that American patriotism was at an all-time high at the turn of the 19th century. Pianist Max Liebling wove a few of those marches into an encore piece he wrote for Maud Powell to play with the Sousa Band on its 1905 tour. Liebling pulled themes from two of Sousa's operettas, "El Capitan" and "The Bride Elect," for his Fantasia on Sousa Themes. Sousa's most famous march,"The Stars and Stripes Forever," brings the fantasia to a powerful close. Even though this performance features only violin and piano, I could swear I hear echoes of a full marching band during the invigorating finale, where Barton Pine takes on the role of the piccolo and pianist Matthew Hagle rolls up and down the keyboard filling in for the brass and percussion sections.

As the American tradition of classical music was emerging, Maud Powell dared to cross the color line by performing African-American spirituals in her recital program. One of them was "Deep River," which Powell heard in a piano transcription by Afro-English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. Powell was so inspired she decided to create her own. The emotional impact of this piece intensifies through a wide range of dynamics and tight harmonies executed with great feeling by Barton Pine and Matthew Hagle.

In this tribute to the great American violinist Maud Powell, Rachel Barton Pine achieves her goal, opening our ears to unfamiliar masterworks, outstanding arrangements and an important piece of American history that many of us know little about.

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