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.

CD recording of one half of Schubert’s output for piano trio, performed on period instruments by the Castle Trio. The Trio’s Grammy Award-winning pianist Lambert Orkis uses a copy of an 1824 Graf fortepiano made by Rod Regier, who has subsequently done extensive restoration work on the Smithsonian’s own Graf instrument. Slowik’s accompanying essay discusses the works and the last years of Schubert’s life.

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 Bach’s dramatic narrative of the Passion According to St. John, played on period instruments and sung by a 12-voice chorus of soloists. The two discs can be programmed to allow listeners to compare the standard version of the work with the version Bach re-wrote for a 1725 performance. Slowik’s extensive accompanying essay has been cited as among the best of its kind for the detailed introduction it provides to the work’s history and structure.

CD recording of two great middle-period Haydn string quartets, played on period instruments 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 dedicatee, Johann Tost.

CD recording featuring famed Dutch cellist Anner Bylsma, with the Smithsonian Chamber Players, performing works of 19th-century Belgian cellist Adrien-François Servais on the very cello Servais used for the bulk of his career, the magnificent 1701 Stradivarius cello, known as the “Servais," from the Smithsonian’s collection. Servais’s career and acquisition of the cello are traced in Slowik’s accompanying essay.

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.