Világ: Solo Violin Works – Miranda Cuckson

Violinist and violist Miranda Cuckson, a graduate of Juilliard who now teaches at Mannes, plays the old-timey violin repertoire like all good little, well-behaved classical musician nowadays because she has to in order to make a living, but she also delights in playing modern repertoire as often as she can because she really enjoys it. Thus she is, in the words of the late Nadia Boulanger, “a complete musician,” unlike those who waste their entire lives just playing the old-timey stuff.

This new album, which is actually a 2-CD set although it is not advertised as such on the album cover or inlay (the full program runs about 95 minutes, far too long for one CD), takes its title from a Hungarian word that looks like the English word village but means “world” or “illumination.” According to the notes, “In Sanskrit. ‘világ’ means ‘to cling to’; in Hindi, ‘separated.’” So I suppose that, in the end, it means a world illumination that you can cling to or separate from.” (The Art Music Lounge, NYC)