Ka Wong
Buy: 
Robert Schumann (1910-1856)
Violin Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 105
1. Mit leidenschaftlichem Ausdruck 8:28
2. Allegretto 3:55
3. Lebhaft 4:51
George Enescu (1881–1955)
Violin Sonata No. 3 in A minor, Op. 25
4. Moderato malinconico 9:44
5. Andante sostenuto e misterioso 9:16
6. Allegro con brio ma non troppo mosso 8:39
Norman Dello Joio (1913-2008)
7. Colloquies, Concert Suite for Violin and Piano 11:12
Violin: Ka Wong
Piano: Karen Smithies
Total Time: 56:08
Ka Wong - Violin
Ka Wong studied violin in China (Shanghai and Macao), Portugual and Australia where his teachers were Zheng Shisheng, Jack Glazer and Jan Sedivka. He receives regular conducting training from the renowned conductor Myer Fredman. Ka Wong received both his PhD in Music/ Musicology and Master in Music at the University of Tasmania, Australia.
Ka Wong was the first prizewinner of the First Macao Youth Music Competition and has been actively involved in music teaching. He has been a Lecturer of Violin at the Macao Conservatory for ten years (1993-2003) and guest chamber music lecturer at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music, China (2004). He is currently string tutor of the Australian International Summer Orchestra Institute (AISOI), a post he has held since 2006.
As a solo violinist and chamber musician, Ka Wong has played throughout Portugal, Spain, China (Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Hong Kong, Macao) and Australia. He has appeared as a soloist in various festivals, namely the Fifth Macao Arts Festival (1994), International Early Music Festival (Lisbon, 1995), Fifth China Art Festival (Chengdu, 1997) and the Overseas Chinese Festival (Shanghai, 1998). He has been invited to perform for the former Portuguese President Mário Soares in 1995.
Ka Wong is a founding member of the Macao Piano Trio (1995) as well as the Macao Youth Symphony Orchestra and has organized the Macao Youth Symphony Orchestra to participate in the “Itzhak Perlman Leads 3000 Young String Players in Concert” performance in August 2002. Aside from organizing performances, Ka Wong has also conducted two collaborative concerts in 2006, performed by the SBS Radio Broadcasting Youth Orchestra and the Macao Youth Symphony Orchestra in both Hong Kong and Macao.
His orchestral leadership experience includes: Assistant Concertmaster of Macao Symphony Orchestra (1994), Concertmaster of the European Baroque Music Youth Orchestra (1997), Acting Second Violin Principal of the Macao Chamber Orchestra (2000) and Guest Concertmaster of the Hobart Chamber Orchestra (2006). He has also performed with the Lisbon Radio Symphony Orchestra in Portugal, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Broadcasting Radio Symphony Orchestra, Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Hong Kong Soloists and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.
At the invitation of the Central Conservatory of Music (Beijing) in April 2007, Mr. Wong conducted the EOS Orchestra Academy of the Central Conservatory of Music (Beijing) in an All-Beethoven Symphony Concert and gave a one-week orchestral masterclass to the students of the Central Conservatory of Music. Ka Wong received his double Doctoral degree in Music/Musicology from the University of Tasmania in 2008. He currently works as Orchestra Manager of the Macao Orchestra and serves as guest lecturer of the University of Macao and guest violin tutor at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.
Karen Smithies - Piano
Karen Smithies completed her Masters Degree in Performance at the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music in 2002, studying with Beryl Sedivka. She graduated from Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 1995 with a Bachelor of Music degree, majoring in Accompaniment and Performance and studying with David Miller, Gerard Willems, Lyall Duke and Margaret Hair. Upon completion of that degree Karen received the “Mollie Neal” scholarship for Accompaniment.
In 2000 Karen featured in three ABC Classic FM live broadcasts performing Janacék’s Violin Sonata with Marina Phillips, Mendelssohn’s Trio No. 1 for Violin, Cello and Piano with Marina Phillips and Christian Wojtowicz and as accompanist to the TSO Brass Ensemble. An active soloist, chamber musician and accompanist, Karen currently lectures in accompaniment at the University of Tasmania, Conservatorium of Music.
Robert Schumann (1910-1856)
Violin Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 105
Mit leidenschaftlichem Ausdruck
Allegretto
Lebhaft
German composer Robert Schumann composed his Violin Sonata in A minor, Op. 105 during his tenure as conductor in Düsseldorf in 1851. This was substantially later than when he composed his better-known chamber works, such as his Piano Quintet, Piano Quartet and the three String Quartets. Violin Sonata in A minor presents a different set of challenges than the earlier works by the composer. Its first movement, marked Mit leidenschaftlichem Ausdruck (with passionate expression), is characterized by an undulating semiquaver figuration and unfolds with great flow of emotion and activity. The development is concise and is concerned almost exclusively with the opening motive. The agitation evident in the closing bars of the first movement is contrasted with the gentle, intimate character of the second movement, Allegretto. This movement features a dialogue between contrasting musical ideas; one built on a delicately descending, syncopated motion, the other more energetic and decorated with embellishment. The final movement, Lebhaft (Lively), has a perpetual motion and concludes the Sonata with feelings of indecisiveness. It has been suggested by some scholars that this tension demonstrates Schumann’s effort to “honestly explore the depths of his own increasingly agitated and complex mind.”
George Enescu (1881–1955)
Violin Sonata No. 3 in A minor, Op. 25
Moderato malinconico
Andante sostenuto e misterioso
Allegro con brio ma non troppo mosso
George Enescu deliberately imbued his Violin Sonata No. 3 in A minor with exotically folk-Romanian character and named it as “dans le caractère populaire roumain” (In the Popular Romanian Style). He borrowed Gypsy violin techniques in the creation of his themes. He also used quarter tones and chromatic passages to break down a strict sense of tonality in the piece. He called for specific bowing types and figurative ornaments in the score through which the violin imitates “real” Gypsy music. Added to this Enescu incorporates evocative and unusual piano figuartions evoking the sound of the cimbalom. The Sonata is constructed in three movements. The first, Moderato malinconico, is a sonata-allegro movement based on two contrasting subjects: the first a lament with the second much more animated. The opening of the second movement, Andante sostenuto e misterioso, features quietly repeated notes in the piano, on top of which the violin plays a long passage in harmonics leading to a dark atmosphere sometimes penetrated with occasional dramatic passages. The final Allegro con brio, ma non troppo mosso is a rondo with a march-like subject that breaks down into something more of a dance or improvisation in its numerous episodes. It ends with a series of harsh chords and a final, conclusive gesture by the violin.
Norman Dello Joio (1913-2008)
Colloquies, Concert Suite for Violin and Piano
Lento expressivo
Allegro molto e leggiero
Adagio, mesto
Presto spumante
Adagio tranquillo
Molto animato, con ruvidezza
The American composer and educator Norman Dello Joio became active as a professional musician in the 1920s and remained a prominent figure in the cultural landscape of his country throughout the twentieth century. Dello Joio was taught to play the organ at an early age by his father and godfather, who were both skilled organists. By age 14, he was appointed organist at the Star of the Sea Church in New York. The traditional Catholic liturgical music that Dello Joio was exposed to at this time made a lasting impression on the young composer. His studies at the Julliard School (1939-1941) and with Hindemith (1941) were also vital in shaping his personal compositional style and a musical language which effectively fuses the worlds of Italian opera, liturgical music and jazz. In general, Dello Joio’s compositions are colourful, extroverted and well crafted. The accessibility of his style has earned him many awards and the respect of a wide audience, however, many musicologists criticized his music to be too accessible for him to be considered a serious composer. Dello Joio composed his Colloquies: Concert Suite for Violin and Piano in 1963. This work contains six petite movements with distinctive styles.