The award-winning Shea-Kim Duo - violinist Brendan Shea and pianist Yerin Kim - have just released a new album on Blue Griffin Recordings. “All Roads” features music by Schnittke, Beach, Schumann, and Beethoven. We spoke to the duo about the new album, what they’ve been up to since we last spoke with them (fresh off the release of “The Sound and the Fury”), and more.
Last time we spoke, you had just released your debut album The Sound and the Fury in 2021. What has kept you busy in the years since, both professionally and as a family?
Yerin Kim: We’ve been busy with our two kids and balancing our personal and professional lives. We recently joined the roster of Parker Artists, I started my tenure track position as Professor of Music at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington. Brendan is concertmaster at the Boise Philharmonic and serves as Artist in Residence at the College of Idaho. It’s been very busy, but also very rewarding.
Brendan Shea: Our move to the Pacific Northwest from Indiana was a big change. It's where I'm originally from, so it is great to be back.
How does All Roads differ from your previous duo album? What throughlines run between the two?
Y: Our previous album, “The Sound and the Fury” focused on the spectrum of emotions and colors that we personally felt connected to. A wide range of human expression was at the heart of it. This new album, we focused on the wide range of colors and fashion that is connected to the heart of Viennese classical and romantic styles; iconic duo works by Robert Schumann and Beethoven, the humorous evocation of late baroque/early classical style by Schnittke, the high romanticism depicted by Amy Beach.
B: All Roads was an opportunity for us to continue to explore unusual ways composers from different times and places are connected. We wanted to create a soundscape that showed how wildly different styles are connected. Vienna is an incredibly important city for classical music, and it was fun finding works we felt really connected the composers to this idea.
What did you learn through your experiences recording your first album that you applied towards creating All Roads?
Y: I really have to thank our sound engineer and producer Sergei Kvitko. This is actually my third album with him as he was the engineer for my solo debut album “First and Last Words-Schumann and Schnittke”. I can’t say enough how grateful I am to have trusting ears behind the scenes, empathizing with every sound and emotions that we go through. Recording is a very personal experience and to have someone like Sergei listening with all of his senses giving honest feedback and support was so special.
B: Yes, Sergei and his cats and dogs and his husband James all endured our bloopers, so special thanks to them! I think we’ve also always loved programming recitals, and programming for “The Sound and the Fury” and “All Roads” felt really natural to what we do every time we pick repertoire for our tours and concerts. The hardest part is not packing too much onto the concert!
What does the title, All Roads, refer to? What attracts you to the mystique and culture of Vienna?
Y: We love the idea of taking something that evokes an image or an idea, and framing it in a musical context. With our first album there is the quote from Macbeth and the Faulkner novel of the same name. With All Roads there is the connection to the saying coined by the 12th century theologian and poet Alain de Lille “All roads lead to Rome, '' which has seen frequent use since its inception.
B: I travelled to Vienna for lessons in high school, and it was an incredibly important part of my development as a musician. Being there, making music, going to the same places that so many of my favorite composers had been to, it really felt like an almost religious experience. I wondered often afterward if the mystique of the city had that effect on others who had gone before me, and that was a big part of my own connection to the title.
The album’s most recently composed piece is Alfred Schnittke’s Suite in the Old Style. What is the old style he refers to?
Y: Schnittke is such an interesting composer, he created a style of music that seems to travel through different times and styles. He described his identity as:
tied to Russia, having spent all my life here. On the other hand, much of what I’ve written is somehow related to German music and to the logic that comes out of being German, although I did not particularly want this…Like my German forebears, I live in Russia, I can speak and write Russian far better than German... My Jewish half gives me no peace: I know none of the Jewish languages, but I look like a typical Jew.
I think that his ability to perceive all these different cultures had a profound effect on his writing. Vienna was where he took piano and theory lessons at a young age so it was only natural for us to include his piece in this album. As for the piece, “Suite in the Old Style” gives us the comfort of familiarity in the form and texture mixed with unexpected punches in pitches and dynamics.
B: A suite is a collection of movements, usually dances, written for various instruments to perform. The 6 Suites for solo cello by J.S. Bach comes to mind. The old style is referring to the styles he is using, which were frequently used during the baroque. The minuet, fugue, and pastoral are particularly evocative of popular forms from this time period. Like Stravinsky and Prokofiev, Schnittke inserts moments of humor and his own musical language. What’s wonderful about this piece is often we hear different moments where audience members hear Schnittke making a joke, or putting something in an unusual spot.
What do you bring to your performance of Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 3 that is uniquely your own?
Y: We didn’t hold back! It is such a fun piece to play. It was a complete headache to learn it because it is not an easy piece, but once it is “in your system”, it is such a ride. I love the heartfelt second movement that allows you to soak into his sound world and the contrasting energetic outer movements that makes you feel like you’re the most fit person in the world (I am not).
B: Beethoven is always so fun to work on in this setting. With any piece you come with your own ideas and feelings, but Beethoven is somehow always more intense to dig into. I felt like where we started was completely different by the end. This piece is notoriously difficult for piano, and considering none of these sonatas are ever easy for anyone that’s really saying something. The challenge resides in the juxtaposition between balancing the classical style and Beethoven's unrelenting style of writing. Early Beethoven also has an extremely wide range of emotions and colors, and deciding what to bring out is a wonderful intense process. This Sonata in particular feels like it’s super charged in all directions, technical complexity, emotional depth, everything.