Kismet: Vignettes For Violin and Piano is a new album from violinist Vov Dylan.  It follows his earlier album The Music of Cole Porter Without Words, also available from NativeDSD Music on the Elkwood label (linked below).

This new album is a collection of new works, world premiers and performances featuring some of Australia’s finest musicians. It was born from Covid inactivity, where Violinist Vov Dylan and Composer Elena Kats-Chernin found time to grow from musical friends to musical collaborators and in the process delving into the vast array of music that Elena has composed.

This collection is the first album of new music like this from Elena Kats-Chernin in over a decade and also marks the first artistic collaboration between Vov Dylan and Clemens Leske. Renowned Australian Pianist Clemens Leske joined the project and together with Vov and Elena, a program of delightful, personal, playful and extremely musical vignettes was curated.

During the 2021 lockdowns, Vov, Clemens and numerous other guest performers were able to record these works. They have been recorded in extreme high definition and will be the first collection of works by an Australian Composer to be released in this format.

For this Special Edition of Kismet: Vignettes For Violin and Piano, Vov Dylan and Elkwood has done something very special for the NativeDSD release which is not available elsewhere. It features multiple recordings of the same works but in a Concert Hall with a Steinway Model D Grand Piano (tracks 13-16) in contrast the original editions performed in Recording Studio with a Handmade Yamaha S6 Concert Grand Piano (tracks 1-12).

Vov Dylan says “This project is one that I am so exceptionally proud of. To work in collaboration with Elena, and to be performing and recording with musicians of the caliber of Clemens Leske and Victoria Jacono-Gilmovich is such an intense thrill. The collection of music is for predominantly Violin and Piano and features music which is emotive, personal, delightful and playful.”

Composer Elena Kats-Chernin says “During the first lockdown of the 2020 I found myself composing random unrequested pieces, organized in a collection called “Isolation Suite”. When Vov contacted me in 2021 about a student playing a piece of mine, we got to chat about what I was writing at the time and I played some of those pieces to him. That started an avalanche of new arrangements for Vov, of these and some other works of mine for Violin, Piano and some other formations, always with Vov’s beautiful Violin playing in mind. Among those pieces are “Distant Mountains”, “Kismet”, “Half-Moon Prelude”, “Kate Waltz” and even “Eliza Aria” in an arrangement for Violin and Cello. After a while we found that there was enough material to record a whole album. Vov has done an incredible job of putting this project together and getting wonderful musicians on board to play with him.”

Vov Dylan – Violin
Clemens Leske – Piano
Victoria Jacono-Gilmovich – Violin
Susan Blake – Cello
Nicole Murray-Prior – Double Bass