Kinetic
Michael Jinsoo Lim
Planet M Records PMR-006 (planetmrecords.bandcamp.com/album/michael-jinsoo-lim-kinetic)
Listen
Melia Watras: Doppelgänger Dances: V. Doppelgänger - Listen on Spotify
Piazzolla: Tango-Etude No. 3 - Listen on Spotify
Corigliano: The Red Violin Caprices: Variation 5 - Listen on Spotify
Read the Review
Kinetic is the remarkable solo album by violinist Michael Jinsoo Lim, who as concertmaster and soloist with the Pacific Northwest Ballet felt himself to be “at the intersection of music and dance” for over 15 years; each piece here has a dance connection (Planet M Records PMR-006 planetmrecords.bandcamp.com/album/michael-jinsoo-lim-kinetic).
There are personal connections with all but one of the composers: Lim and his wife, the violist/composer Melia Watras, were founding members of the Corigliano Quartet, named for American composer John Corigliano; Watras has collaborated with fellow violist/composer Leilehua Lanzilotti; Lim has known Paola Prestini since their Juilliard days.
All three works by Watras - Doppelgänger Dances, A dance of honey and inexorable delight and Homage to Swan Lake – were written for this project and are world-premiere recordings, as are Lanzilotti’s where we used to be and Prestini’s A Jarful of Bees. Corigliano is represented by The Red Violin Caprices and the glorious fiddle-inspired Stomp, which requires the player to do exactly that.
Piazzolla’s Tango-Études Nos.1, 3 and 4 are interspersed throughout a fascinating recital of quite brilliant playing by Lim.
