Classical Guitar Magazine (UK)

"UNTAMING THE FURY" Summit Records, DCD-346

A SENSE OF ENSEMBLE THAT IS SECOND TO NONE 

"Comprising Beth Ilana Schneider (violin) and Matt Gould (guitar), Duo 46 are a photogenic pair who appear on this disc resplendent in evening dress and designer shades amid the Salamis Ruins on Cyprus.  Imagine, if you dare, the publicity stills from a forthcoming archaeological blockbuster starring Hugh Grant and Minnie Driver.

But there’s nothing antediluvian about the composers they present, only two of whom are on the wrong side of 40 at the time of writing.  And yes, it’s a taxing agenda for all concerned, the prevailing mood being not so much  misterioso as molto agitato.  Nowhere is this more extreme than in Kristi McGarity’s How the Hell Are You Feeling?, in which each movement bears a neurotic inscription derived from the Bartok pizzicato that announce the opening Feel Like Hell should be sufficient to establish whether or not this is your cup of organic herbal tea.

But it’s not all unprovoked attacks on the senses.  Anthony Joseph Lanman’s Sonata 46 is a thrusting yet manageable tour de force built around what the composer describes as ‘one devilishly difficult lick’.  Within a duration of less than five minutes, it establishes beyond all doubt that, whatever you may think of their subsequent choice of material, Duo 46 enjoy a consummate mastery of their respective instruments and have a sense of ensemble that is second to none.

This said, there was nothing that particularly grabbed my attention elsewhere in the programme, although I couldn’t help admiring the title of Paul Richard’s Asphalt Gypsy as a reference to the contemporary traveling musician.  But it was only in Russell Sarre’s Debussy-inspired Reverie that I finally felt any sympathetic resonance with what I was hearing.  OK, this is a purely personal and subjective response to a disc that’s clearly intended to provoke and challenge.  But I suspect I won’t be alone in feeling this way.  No matter how receptive the listener might be at the outset, there’s a limit to how much uncharted territory can be assimilated in a single excursion. An enterprising release by a world-class duo, but maybe it contains too much of the same." - Paul Fowles