American violinist Elizabeth Chang’s new album Transformations on Albany Records brings together works by Leon Kirchner (1919-2009), Roger Sessions (1896-1985) and Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951). As can be seen from the press release, this is about teacher-student relationships. Chang was a student of Leon Kirchner at Harvard University. Kirchner, for his part, studied with both Sessions and Schoenberg. The program begins with Kirchner’s Second Duo for Violin and Piano, a modern piece from 2002 alternating between lively and very delicately lyrical moments. Elizabeth Chang and Steven Beck play it 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’ Duo for Violin and Cello with real flair and commitment. Like Sessions’ 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, her playing standing out pleasantly to my ears from the far more brash approach of a Gidon Kremer. And so the line of excellent interpretations runs through a program of transformations…