Interview in Strings Magazine about Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival
September/October issue, 2024

Reviews of Recordings

“First of all, listening to the few bars of this installment immediately reveals two musicians who are clearly accustomed to working together. This is not the so-frequent casual encounter of two people doing a recording jointly and departing from each other, never to return. These musicians breathe together, shaping beautiful dynamic and small rubati, clearly enjoying themselves while playing…Violinist Elizabeth Chang has the natural gift of producing a simple but elegant bow in phrases that are sometimes very long and difficult to manage.”

Giorgio Koukl, Earrelevant (blog)

“She is blessed with a beautiful tone, has fascinating musical ideas and a technique to burn…American violinist Elizabeth Chang with accompanist Steven Beck gives us a superb performance of this most evocative work

Anthony Kershaw, Audiophilia (blog)

"Chang is fiercely invested in this recording and her playing reflects a true understanding of these works."

Craig Byrd, Cultural Attache (blog)

“Elizabeth Chang and Steven Beck play (Kirchner’s Duo No.2) intensely with the utmost commitment, the violinist continually delighting with ravishing cantabile. Roger Sessions’ four-movement solo sonata for violin is, according to the composer, « rhapsodic. » The first movement is of fragile lyricism, the second and the Finale are virtuosic and brilliant, while the Adagio in Elisabeth Chang’s interpretation becomes gorgeously tender, like a modern lullaby. Chang and cellist Alberto Parrini perform Robert Sessions’s Duo for Violin and Cello with real flair and commitment. Like Sessions’s Duo, Schoenberg’s Phantasy for Violin with Piano Accompaniment, Op. 47 (1949), is the composer’s last chamber work. The dodecaphonic composition is virtuosic and sometimes genuinely dance-like, while being really technically challenging in the violin part. But Elizabeth Chang masters this brilliantly and elegantly at the same time…”

Pizzicato blog, Rémy Franck

“A significant and enjoyable contribution to the recorded legacy of this very significant western art music.”

New Music Buff (blog)

“Her virtuosic technique and love of musical challenge are apparent throughout this performance.”

Only strings WSUM

“Salvatore Macchia’s Converging Lines for violin and piano…employs a fully-chromatic and disjunct, non-tonal language, though it avoids pointillist fragmentation. This is a demanding work for both performers and listeners, sometimes relentlessly so. But it richly repays anyone who can appreciate Macchia’s integrity and ambition and is willing to give the music the time and effort it requires. That isn’t as hard as it might sound, given the stunning performance by violinist Elizabeth Chang and pianist Judith Gordon; anything played this well will likely attract notice.”

American Record Guide

“Elizabeth Chang’s playing is amazing; at one point one hears two violins playing two different pieces of music, of differing character, simultaneously. Even more important is her deep musicality, shared with her colleagues. They make all of this supposedly “difficult” music easy listening, maintaining both warmth and clarity throughout. There have been other recordings of all these pieces, but I doubt that any are so completely winning.”

Fanfare Magazine