It’s amazing, isn’t it? Used to be that talent alone got you into this business, and talent alone kept you there. Then it seemed to gravitate slightly towards youth about 15 years ago, and now we must add beauty as well. Do we ever see any covers of new talent featuring ordinary-looking people? Goodness, sorry to say it, but half of the great stars of yesteryear would have been bypassed today for this one reason! So it was with little surprise that I opened this disc of the young (age 15) Shannon Lee, looking all of ten, and a very thin ten at that. I knew what to expect—that she would be a technical phenom was a given. After all, we’ve all seen that Tanglewood tape of Midori and Bernstein, right? All of these beauteous wonders can play – no question about it. And this is a very strategically conceived debut recording full of chestnuts. But can she do more that will set her above the pack? After all, there are some pretty hot babes out there that can blow smoke circles through a pinhead—is Shannon different?
Honestly, I cannot tell you. If you ask me if I notice anything that will predict a big career aside from spotless technical acumen and above average maturity in the way she handles her phrasing, consistent vibrato (not varied too much though) and a sense of fluidity, no, I can’t. I can tell you that this is a rewarding and impressive disc, keeping in mind her age and musical maturity. And this last is probably the key. We tend to think that musical maturity, along with physical age and experience of the world are important considerations when evaluating talent, and to an extent they are. But we also gush over old men showing us the wonders they find in music written by 30-year-old composers who were destined to never experience the things these old men did. In other words, we short-change youth when considering the varieties and depth of the emotional world they inhabit. To this point, Ms. Lee shows us a large degree of substance.
However, there are limits. When I was listening to Elgar’s classically nostalgic Salut d’amour I kept thinking how artificial and contrived the sentiment was in Shannon’s reading, that this music came from a world and a time about which she simply has no clue as to its essence. I think it a valid point, and this is where a few of these pieces fail to sell themselves, really through no fault of hers at all. Another case is the Ernst arrangement of Schubert’s Der Erlkonig—she gets the notes but misses out on the drama. Comparing this to Rachel Barton Pine’s Cedille recording shows what is missing, and what a difference about 15 years can make. On the other hand, the Kreisler readings are excellent, as is the opening Wieniawski, as are most of the others.
Impressive as a debut recording? Of course. But I look forward to seeing her develop in the next few years, to the point of bringing things to music that no one else has before, and in this I wish her all the best. Telarc’s sound is first class, though I am concerned about the apparent slide away from SACD.
— Steven Ritter
