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Show tunes? Tango music? A Beethoven sonata? Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, no musical snob, takes it all seriously.
By ROBERT HICKS
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 27, 2003
Violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg has strong ideas about the boundaries of her musical world.
"I have the same respect for playing a Cole Porter tune or a Gypsy tune as I do for playing a Beethoven sonata. Why not?" she asks. "I'm not prudish in that way. I think as long as the caliber of people you're working with is high, the quality of the music will be high."
To kick off her spring duo-recital tour with pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, Salerno-Sonnenberg will perform Schubert's Rondo Brillant, Faure's Sonata in A and Beethoven's Sonata No. 7 in C Minor at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater tonight.
"First of all, I'd say each piece is phenomenal in its own way. I like the fact that when you put them all together, it's a very varied program," she says.
"You have Schubert which is classic, but very exciting. It's a wonderful opening piece, which is followed by Faure, which is French and has a completely different mood and feel. It's extremely romantic. Then to play the Beethoven in C minor. Beethoven wrote 10 violin sonatas, but this one is extremely powerful and very intense."
Salerno-Sonnenberg and McDermott first performed together at a winter chamber music series in Aspen, Colo. during the 2000-2001 season. The two went on to tour internationally, but traveling in different music circles has kept them apart since then. Now Salerno-Sonnenberg is thrilled about her reunion with McDermott.
"I've known who Annie was for a very long time and she the same with me, but we sort of played and traveled in different circles. We kind of got thrown together at the last minute for that chamber music concert in Aspen and finally played together. It was just magic and effortless. We're just on the same page musically. We've been playing together ever since."
Playing with McDermott is like working with a kindred spirit, says Salerno-Sonnenberg, 42.
"I love the whole rehearsal process with her. We get along like sisters. We have the same likes and we both smoke, as awful as that is these days," she said.
"When we sit down to work, I work my part individually and she works her part individually. In learning a piece, I might not fully understand how to execute a passage and I get it from her. It's done. I think the same thing goes for her. We're two people looking at notes and seeing the same thing. That makes it a blessing. And it's so much fun."
Salerno-Sonnenberg's life has not always been filled with so much joy. Her frantic concert and travel schedule contributed to a particularly dark period in her life. Her decline began when she sliced off the tip of her left pinky while chopping onions for Christmas dinner in 1994. In the months after her reattachment surgery, she reconfigured her violin parts for only three fingers so she could go on with her concert appearances.
Although she appeared heroic in public, her private life told a different story. Devastated by a failed relationship, she tried to kill herself. Miraculously, the gun jammed.
Today, Salerno-Sonnenberg has put her troubles behind her. She continues to tour rigorously, appearing as a soloist with orchestras and performing with chamber ensembles. Her projects outside classical music include her recent recording and tour, performing Argentinian tangos and Gypsy folk melodies with the Brazilian guitarists Sergio and Odair Assad. She has five recording projects planned for 2003-04.
"Everything I do is so different," she says. "I do these things with the Assad Brothers. I'll go out and do a recital tour, then I'll go out on my own and play concertos.
"I can't say I prefer one over the other. With a recital, you play a lot longer, but the repertoire is different from a concerto. It's split 50-50. I'm not the soloist. She's not the soloist. It's equal. That makes it more fun in a sense. I think there's more pressure on you when you're on stage as a soloist with an orchestra behind you.
"I do all of it, so I get used to it. It gets into your mind-set."
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg performs with pianist Anne-Marie McDermott at 8 p.m. today at Ruth Eckerd Hall, 1111 McMullen-Booth Road, Clearwater. $30-$40. (727) 791-7400.