Profile profile for slowikk

CD recording of three string orchestra works from around the turn of the twentieth century, performed by an ensemble on instruments strung with gut strings and played in a period-appropriate manner. The differences between this historically-informed approach, based in part on the recordings and scores of work of Willem Mengelberg, Mahler’s principle champion from 1904 to 1940 and modern practices, are discussed in Slowik’s accompanying essay. The disk includes brief excerpts from two historical recordings of the Adagietto (one by Mengelberg, one by Bruno Walter), and a reading of Schoenberg’s program notes for Verklärte Nacht read by Richard Hoffmann, the composer’s secretary during the last three years of his life in Los Angeles.

CD recording of four important string orchestra works from the half-century before the end of the Second World War, performed by an ensemble whose instruments are strung with gut strings, played in a period-appropriate manner. The differences between this historically informed approach and modern practices are highlighted in Slowik’s accompanying essay, which also discusses the works and provides analytical insights, illustrated in special additional tracks on the CD, into the harmonic/motivic metamorphoses referred to in the Strauss title.

The first period-instrument CD recording of the complete Beethoven piano trios, played by the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society’s Castle Trio. The Trio’s Grammy Award-winning pianist Lambert Orkis uses five different fortepianos, illustrating the rapid development of the instrument during Beethoven’s lifetime, including one made by Conrad Graf (maker of Beethoven’s last piano) now in the Smithsonian collection. Slowik’s accompanying essays discuss the music, the instruments, and the Castle Trio’s approach to the works, which was influenced by Beethoven pupil Carl Czerny’s treatise, "On the Proper Performance of Beethoven’s Works for the Pianoforte."

CD recording, played on eight Stradivarius instruments from the collections of the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress (including the Smithsonian’s Ole Bull and Greffuhle violins, the Axelrod viola, and the Servais and Marylebone cellos), of Felix Mendelssohn’s Octet, arguably the most important work of its kind in the string repertoire, paired with his pupil Neils Gade’s similarly scored but little-known masterpiece. John Newsom, Chief of the Music Division of the Library of Congress, where Mendelssohn’s autograph score to the Octet resides, has contributed an accompanying essay discussing the works.

CD recording of three of Luigi Boccherini’s 126 string quintets, played on five Stradivarius instruments from the Smithsonian collection: the Ole Bull and Greffuhle violins, the Axelrod viola, and the Servais and Marylebone cellos. Slowik’s cellist colleague is the legendary Dutch cellist and Boccherini specialist, Anner Bylsma. The recording includes the famous A-major Menuet used in the soundtrack to the original film The Ladykillers. Slowik’s accompanying essay discusses Boccherini’s singular importance in non-Viennese Classical-period chamber music.

CD recording of Marais’s two suites for two bass viols and continuo. In his accompanying essay, Slowik discusses the suites in general and the fact that the opening of the Tombeau from the G Major suite later served Johanm Sebastian Bach as the model for the chorus which begins the St. Matthew Passion. Slowik’s Smithsonian Chamber Players colleagues on this disk are Jaap ter Linden, viola da gamba, and Konrad Junghänel, theorbo.

The first CD recording made on period instruments of the complete trio sonatas of Corelli’s Op. 3. Slowik’s Smithsonian Chamber Players colleagues are violinists Jaap Schroeder and Marilyn McDonald, theorbo player Konrad Junghänel, and organist James Weaver. In the accompanying essay, Slowik discusses Corelli’s widespread influence at the end of the seventeenth century and the history of the Op. 3 sonatas.

The first period-instrument CD recordings of Beethoven’s early Op. 18 quartets, the initial six of his eventual sixteen string quartets, performed by the Smithson String Quartet—Jaap Schroeder and Marilyn McDonald, violins; Judson Griffin, viola; and Kenneth Slowik, cello—resident artists of the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society from 1982–1991. Slowik’s accompanying essay discusses the works and their relationship to the late quartets of Haydn and Mozart.

CD recording of two major late-19th-century Czech piano trios, played by the Castle Trio on the Smithsonian’s 1892 “Paderewski” Steinway piano and “Marlebone” Stradivarius cello, plus an Andrea Guarneri violin. Slowik’s accompanying essay discusses the works and the performance practice approach taken in preparing the recording.