Richard Yongjae O'Neill DUO

He may be a classical star on his own but for violist Richard Yongjae O’Neill, his latest album “Duo” shows the power two musicians can create. 

“If I am a soloist on a stage, it’s like I am an actor delivering a monologue, and that’s very wonderful. You think of all monologues in Shakespeare, they are very profound and complete. But most stage drama has to have at least two characters,” he said during a press meeting in Seoul on Monday to promote the album. “I think this album is a great example. I think an album like this really gets to listeners. (The listeners) can really can get to know each one of us individually as well as together.” 

Mastering for the album was completed on March 11, and it was released Monday, featuring classical and contemporary duets performed with musicians from Korea, cellist Mun Tae-guk, violist Lee Soo-min and violinist Shin Hyun-su, also known as Zia Shin.

“I think this album is an interesting look at how some of the great composers have showed how virtuosic they are. It’s very soloistic album because listeners can hear everyone’s voice very clearly throughout the album. The viola is sort of in the middle of everything. I am sort of the hinge between all of the duos,” O’Neill added.

Included in the album are Halvorsen‘s Passacaglia in G minor for Violin and Viola, Mozart’s Duo for Violin and Viola in B flat Major K. 424, Franz Anton Hoffmeister’s Duo Op. 19 No 2 for Violin and Viola, Beethoven’s Duo in E flat Major for Viola and Cello, WoO 32, Paul Hindemith’s Scherzo for Viola and Cello, Frank Bridge’s “Lament for 2 Violas” H. 101/2 and George Benjamin’s “Viola, Viola.” (Shim Woo-hyun)

Tamsin Waley-Cohen SOLI Works for Solo Violin by BARTÓK, PENDERECKI, BENJAMIN, CARTER & KURTÁG

There is nothing like the experience of being completely alone on stage, just with my violin. It is the ultimate soul-baring communion both with myself and with the audience. And it is no coincidence that many of the works written for solo violin explore the depths of our shared human experience through this intense medium.

For musicians, composers and performers alike, sound is our medium. Through sound we must express everything we wish to communicate. The works on this disc take the violin to its expressive limits. The technical demands on the performer are always in the service of heightened expression, whether of ecstasy, pain, doubt, loneliness, desperation, or acceptance and peace. For me, this is at the heart of why I play the violin, and why I play music, to explore our inner life through the language of sound.

Each composer on this disc displays a great depth of knowledge and understanding of the instrument, not only how it can be played, but of how natural resonances interact, uniting or jarring or distorting, often using the open strings as building blocks. Although there are moments when the writing is at the edge of what is playable, it is always possible, and the struggle can even add to the content.

The recording process was extraordinarily intense, not only because I was alone in the hall. The emotional rawness of the material took its toll each day, so in the evening, to play a Kurtag miniature was a wonderful balm.I would like to say an enormous thank you to Nick Parker and Mike Hatch who produced and engineered this disc, and for the invaluable support they gave during the recording sessions. (Tamsin Waley-Cohen)