Canadian born violinist, Kai Gleusteen, started learning the violin at the age of 5 in his native city, Calgary. Early on, Kai met with success in local, provincial, and national music competitions, in addition to receiving top academic awards. He spent the summers at Meadowmount in New York State, at the Aspen Festival, at the Banff School of Fine Arts, and at the Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California, working with Ivan Galamian, Dorothy Delay, Stuart Canin, and Nathan Milstein. Winters were filled with skiing, badminton, music, and school.

With the desire of broadening his horizons, Kai chooses to balance his post-secondary education between academics and music. At the University of Michigan, he studied anthropology, geophysics, and philosophy. To his great fortune, he found there the person who would become his greatest inspiration on both a personal and musical level; his violin teacher, Camilla Wicks. After receiving a Master's Degree from Rice University, Kai moved to Europe to live in the heart of Western Culture. Paris and Prague were his bases for nine years, allowing him to develop and perform both as a soloist and leader of numerous orchestras. In the year 2000, Kai won the concertmaster position of the Orchestra 'del Gran Teatre del Liceu' and subsequently moved to Barcelona. In 2003, he formed his own chamber orchestra, the Kaimerata, and was appointed professor at the Escuela Superior de Musica de Catalunya. He continues to perform extensively as a soloist and a recitalist throughout Europe and North America. Kai plays on a violin made by J.B. Guadagnini in 1781.

Having performed her first recital at the age of twelve, it wasn't until the age of twenty, after two years of law school that Catherine decided to devote herself entirely to music. Taught by Colette Fernier, Monique Deschausse, Sergio Perticaroli, and encouraged by Franais-Reneuche, she received the highest distinction at both the Conservatory in Rouen and later at the Ecole Normale Alfred Cortot in Paris. Catherine was also awarded the Yvonne Lefevre Foundation Prize leading to television and radio broadcasts and concert engagements. Catherine chose to avoid the international competition circuit in favour of taking the time to study repertoire in its historical context. Being a great lover of nature, a fan of Marcel Proust and having spent many years in Normandy, she explores in depth the composers who were inspired by this region, such as Roussel, Debussy, and Saint-Saens. She deepens her understanding of Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms with numerous trips to Germany and her knowledge of the language and by reading Goethe and Heine. Her interpretation of Chopin is nourished by the time spent in Poland and a close examination of his letters.

Catherine's approach to music is very much appreciated not only by solo piano audiences throughout Europe and North America but also by various renowned chamber musicians. She is regularly invited to perform in chamber music festivals throughout these countries and devotes a large part of her time to her duo with Kai Gleusteen and the Trio Liceu.

Grieg Violin Sonata
Dvorak Sonatina
Franck Sonata
Kai Gluesteen, violin
Catherine Ordronneau, piano

The works presented on this violin and piano recital offer the listener music by three contrasting yet complementary major composers, each with his own completely individual voice.

A gap of more than twenty years separated Edvard Grieg's Violin Sonata No. 3 in C minor, Op. 45 from its predecessor. The Second Violin Sonata, Op. 13, dates from 1867 - in the field of chamber music, the intervening years saw the String Quartet in G minor, Op. 27 (1877/8) and the Cello Sonata in A minor, Op. 36 (1883) coming to fruition. Dating from 1886-87 (the actual date given for completion is January 21st, 1887 - it is thus contemporaneous with the third book of Lyric Pieces, Op. 43), the Third Sonata's premiere took place at the Neues Gewandhaus, Leipzig, on December 10th, 1887. Adolf Brodsky took the solo violin part and the composer himself was at the piano. The Sonata post-dates a conjugal crisis the composer underwent in 1883, the Griegs' reconciliation and, indeed, the construction of Troldhagen, the composer's retreat, in 1884-85 (it is now a museum dedicated to the composer).

Whereas the Second Sonata (in G major, Op. 13) had been characterised by a generally happy, carefree gait, the Third Sonata is of a more overtly determined nature. The first movement opens dramatically with the violin asserting itself from the very start, reflecting Grieg's 'Allegro molto ed appassionato' indicator. There is an underlying intensity to the writing, underlined not only by the chosen key area of C minor but also by effects such as tremolandi in the (occasionally quasi-orchestral) piano part. The movement ends under a C minor-cloud.

After the terse, highly-concentrated argument of the first movement, the folk-like nostalgic simplicity of the E major Allegretto espressivo alla Romanza comes as a ray of aural sunshine. A somewhat more animated, more overtly rhythmic and dance-like middle section provides the requisite contrast here. Material is equally shared between the two instrumental protagonists. The Romanza ends with the utmost delicacy, a spell broken by the traceries of the finale. This Allegro animato is in ABA1B1Coda form. The main theme has an infectious gait, its rhythmic ebullience frothing over, inevitably, from time to time. Grieg's contrasts within this formal structure are marked - he takes risks, in the process inviting the listener on an exciting and unpredictable journey, sometimes playful, sometimes explosive, but always fascinating. The brief coda is no token gesture - it presents the work's dynamic ethos in perfect microcosm.

Antonin Dvorak's captivating Sonatina in G for violin and piano, B183/Op. 100 was written in the composer's fertile 52nd year and is a product of his American sojourn while he was Director of the National Conservatory of Music. It was written between the 19th November and the 3rd December 1893, just before the premiere (at Carnegie Hall in New York on the 16th December) of the composer's famous 'New World' Symphony. It was one of three major chamber works written in the USA in that year (the other two being the String Quartet No. 12 in F, B179/Op. 96 and the String Quintet in E flat, B180/Op. 97). The Sonatina was published in Berlin by Simrock in 1894 and was to become the most famous of his works for this particular combination. Although not technically demanding (it was written for the composer's children, Otilie and Antoni, it distils the essence of Dvoraks music at this time into a small and approachable frame. As the composer was himself a violist, the sheer facility of writing should not come as a surprise. Neither should the prevalence of chamber music over almost all of his creative life.

The four-movement Sonatina is the most famous of the composer's works for violin and piano (the others include an F major Sonata, B106/Op. 57 and the Four Romantic Pieces, B150/Op. 75). Technically it does little to stretch the technique of either player, but musically it remains a gem.

The first movement (Allegro risoluto) opens with a dramatic statement that is immediately counterbalanced by Dvorakan sunshine. The predominant lyricism that hovers over this movement comes to fruition in the Larghetto (sometimes inauthentically referred to as 'Indian Lament'), a brief exercise in nostalgia containing a contrasting 'Poco pieso' middle section dominated by exquisitely spread piano chords. The short, exuberant and rhythmically buoyant Scherzo (Molto vivace) prefigures the spring in the step of the finale. It has been suggested that the pervading dotted rhythms of the finale might well show the influence of American Indian music. A radiant slower section (Molto tranquillo) acts as an oasis of peace.

Cesar Franck was born in Liege, Belgium, in 1822. It was France, however, that became his adoptive home and it was there that he enjoyed the position of organist at the Church of St. Clothilde, Paris (from 1858 onwards).

Franck's relatively short work-list attests to a work ethic that stressed quality over quantity. The Sonata in A major for Violin and Piano is the second of his major chamber works (the first being the Piano Quintet of 1878-9). It was composed in 1886 and so is concurrent with the Grieg Sonata heard on the present recording. It is cyclic in form, so that a basic cell permeates the fabric, but often so heftily disguised that is difficult to credit that, metamorphosed, it begins each movement (cyclic composition is a technique Franck first used in the early Piano Trio in F sharp minor of 1841). The language of the Sonata is predominantly richly chromatic and frequently contrapuntal, yet Franck balances this within broadly conventional formal constraints.

The Violin Sonata forms part of Franck's later compositional period and shows complete mastery of form and content. The first movement is marked Allegretto ben marcato. The gentle unfolding (not just metrically, but harmonically also) is completely unhurried and contrasts masterfully with the boundless energy of the second movement (Allegro). The third movement is designated as 'Recitativo-fantasia' and, indeed, after some solemn chording from the piano, the solo violin ruminates freely, calmly and in the most dignified of fashions, all of which perfectly reflects the tempo marking of 'Ben moderato'. The Finale (Allegro poco mosso) exudes a similar aura of general contentment to that of the first movement, but compositionally it is more complex. The instruments are now heard frequently in canonic imitation. Here is an Olympian calm, born of complete compositional confidence. The more complex passages for piano show the influence of Franck's many years as organist in their breadth and warmth of sound. The piece ends in a blaze of coruscating virtuosity from both protagonists, a fitting close to a work of such enviable majesty.

- Colin Clarke