Eileen Wingard

The concerts take place on the stage of the new concert hall in Tel Aviv. I am pleased to report that in the first two concerts, the musicians were socially distanced, although they were not wearing masks. Of course, that would have been impossible for the clarinetist in the first concert, which featured Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet. [Eileen Wingard]

The star of the first half of this year’s pared-down Summerfest of the La Jolla Music Society was indisputably, the Israeli-born director, pianist Inon Barnatan. He was featured in all the selections on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. His playing was consistently well-calibrated and balanced with his string collaborators and musically distinctive in its beautiful phrasing and dynamic shadings. His string colleagues were no less distinguished. [Eileen Wingard]

While Yoav Talmi was Music Director of the San Diego Symphony, the orchestra made seven recordings, testaments to the high level the orchestra had achieved during his tenure. The first recording, in 1993, featured music by Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943). [Eileen Wingard]

For this article, I am featuring my sister, violinist Zina Schiff’s Bloch Naxos release: Violin Concerto, Baal Shem Suite and Suite Hebraique, recorded with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Jose Serebrier, conducting. At a concert commemorating Kristallnacht at New York City’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Maestro Jose Serebrier heard Zina perform as soloist with the the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra.He introduced himself after the concert and they later met to discus this CD project. [Eileen Wingard]

I first heard the Cesar Franck Sonata when I was sixteen and attended a recital of the great Polish-born Jewish violinist, Bronislaw Huberman. His closing work was the Franck Sonata, his signature piece. It became one of my favorites and I worked on it in my chamber music class at UCLA. That was before my youngest sister, Zina, was even born. Little did I dream that one day, I would have a sister who would play the Franck Sonata in this glorious recording. [Eileen Wingard]

Cecil Burleigh, Music for Violin and Piano features miniature pieces by the little-known American composer, Cecil Burleigh (1885-1980), performed by my sister, violinist Zina Schiff and pianist, Mary Barranger. Named Critic’s Choice Best of 2002 by the American Record Guide, the CD took its rightful place beside the music of other great American composers, such as Edward MacDowell, Paul Creston, Charles Ives, Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein, in Naxos’ epochal “American Classics” series—the most ambitious recording project of music by American Composers. [Eileen Wingard]

The Canadian-born pianist, Daniel Wnukowski, displayed his talents as an accomplished artist and an insightful teacher in a live-streamed program last Sunday afternoon, sponsored by the Amateur Pianists. He selected three works from three distinct musical periods, the Baroque, the Classical and the Romantic, which he analyzed and contrasted before treating us to beautiful renditions of each. His program consisted of Bach’s Prelude and Fugue #2 from the Well-Tempered Clavichord, the Theme and Variations from Mozart’s Piano Sonata in A major, and Chopin’s 3rd Ballade. [Eileen Wingard]

I was delighted when my sister, violinist Zina Schiff, and Cameron Grant, solo pianist with the New York City Ballet, recorded the three Brahms Sonatas for Violin and Piano, released by MSR Classics, because Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) is my all-time favorite composer. The bittersweet nature of his music, the Hungarian Gypsy tunes, the waltz-like rhythms, the syncopations, all spoke to me and touched my heart. [Eileen Wingard]

Editor’s note: Eileen Wingard continues her series on the discography of her sister, concert violinist Zina Schiff, with embedded examples. By Eileen Wingard SAN DIEGO — Joseph Nagyvary, the brilliant Hungarian-born Professor of Biochemistry from Texas A & M, had just finished delivering a lecture at Louisiana State University in Shreveport. His topic was his