Revolving around the first recording of Sir James MacMillan’s Kiss on Wood for viola and piano arranged and performed by Rachel Yonan and Kwan Yi, this album explores the polarity of light and darkness. Minimalist composer Arvo Pärt’s beloved Fratres and Spiegel im Spiegel bookend the program. The concept of light infuses these pieces with their intense clarity and search for transcendent meaning. Fratres (Brotherhood) evokes the struggle between good and evil with its contrasting voices. Spiegel im Spiegel (Mirror in Mirror) is pure and stable as it sonically imagines the infinite reflection between two mirrors.
Pärt’s deeply spiritual music links to MacMillan’s devotional Kiss on Wood which invites the listener into a place of stillness and silence as it reaches for an essence of meaning beyond words. MacMillan sounds out the darkness of loss, yet finds delicate rays of hope to fill the long spaces. Paired with these intense yet static twenty-first century works are Schumann’s miniature character pieces Märchenbilder (Fairytale Pictures) that use an emotional palette ranging from bright and playful to deeply melancholic. The programmatic title of each work—Fratres, Kiss on Wood, Märchenbilder, Spiegel im Spiegel—hints at meaning that cannot be expressed by words alone, but must be illuminated by the music.
Rachel Yonan, Viola
Kwan Yi, Piano
Tracklist
Please note that the below previews are loaded as 44.1 kHz / 16 bit.Total time: 00:40:48
Additional information
| Label | |
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| SKU | DSL92283 |
| Qualities | DSD 256 fs, DSD 128 fs, DSD 64 fs, DXD 24 Bit, WAV 192 kHz, FLAC 192 kHz |
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| Release Date | April 11, 2025 |
Press reviews
Stereophile
In an intriguing, surprisingly short program, violist Rachel Yonan and pianist Kwan Yi mix three intentionally sparse “modern” pieces by Arvo Pärt and Sir James MacMillan with Robert Schumann’s four far more effusive Märchenbilder (fairy tales). The contrasts are many, and the rewards are considerable.
Those rewards are enhanced by Daniel Shores’s commitment to recording in DXD. Images are realistically large, the sound full, detailed, and free of digital edge. Shores’s kinship with the DXD team of engineer Jim Anderson and producer Ulrike Schwartz is reflected in Schwartz’s involvement as producer and Anderson’s hand in supplying booklet photographs.
The major draw is the first recording of MacMillan’s seven-minute Kiss on Wood, arranged for viola and piano by Yonan. Described by MacMillan as “a short, static and serene meditation,” its inspiration lies in a Latin phrase that on Good Friday invites church attendees to come forward and kiss the wood on Christ’s cross in adoration. The slow, still beauty of the piece is marked by sighing, groaning, and some of the same stillness that makes Pärt’s Fratres and Spielel im Spiegel so magical and riveting. I sat transfixed by the increasingly soft piano chords at the end, whose subtle transformations are captured to perfection by DXD.
Occasionally, Yonan’s flow is interrupted by slight unsteadiness. In Spiegel im Spiegel, her decision to alternate between straight tone and moderate vibrato seems capricious. Most striking, her time travel (with Kwan) to Schumann’s era does not find them plumbing the romantic depths. In works as short as the Märchenbilder, changes in tempo and dynamics are essential. To compare this duo’s final melancholic movement with those from other artists is to discover what more could have been said.
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