If a debut album by a virtuoso musician is to be an expression of self, violinist Janice Martin has created here a mosaic of nimble complexities, beauty and sensitivity, and underlying darkness, saying above all else that playfulness and fun stay close to home in her musical identity.

In this dancing light, her album opening (John Corigliano's "Sonata for Violin and Piano") and closing (Camille Saint-Saens' "Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 28") are less tricky minefields than they are jungle gym playgrounds for Ms. Martin and pianist Rachel Franklin.

It is their Corigliano Sonata that drew raves from critics. James Roos of the Miami Herald declared Martin's "supercharged performance" of the Sonata "the best yet". A live performance at Carnegie Hall impressed NY Times critic Paul Griffiths: "She made the frolicsomeness of John Corigliano's Sonata fun," he wrote.

Recorded by Carnegie Hall studio manager Leszek Wojcik at the Spencerville Seventh Day Adventist Church in Silver Spring, MD, in 1998 a few months before the concert, Ms. Martin had by then completed music degrees at Indiana University and The Juilliard School Masters program, and a 3-year tour as soloist with the U.S. Army band. She had won numerous major artist competitions, the Amadeus Career Grant award and an NEA grant, which helped pay for this recording. As debuts go, "Janice Martin, violinist" was an introduction overdue.

To listen to the album more than 20 years later as it is being made available for streaming is to feel the energy and excitement of newness then, the bristle of hushed waiting anxiety, the intensity of practiced perfection by a violinist ready to be heard and very serious about her art. Roos certainly thought Ms. Martin nailed it. "This is playing of incisive drive, style and lyricism, crystal clear with dead-center intonation."

The choices here are exquisite, the mosaic tiles fitted with patience and care. After the hopping, angular flourishes to end the Corigliano Sonata, Clara Schumann's "Romance in D-flat Major, No. 1" (dedicated to virtuoso violinist Joseph Joachim) introduces a beautiful, languorous mood, wherein Martin explores the rich textures and tones found in her 1685 Marquis d'Auria Stradivarius, borrowed from Joseph Burstein. In the months following this recording session, Ms. Martin would become a Stradivari Society violin recipient, playing the 1708 Burstein Stradivarius aka "Sir Bagshawe".

The underlying darkness rises in the molten sunrise of Eugene Ysaye's "Sonata No. 3, 'Ballade' Op. 27," his celebration of Romanian composer/violinist George Enescu. The degree of difficulty is harsh, the angularities a race against demons down a shadowy mountain, the aggressive bowing stunning in the hands of the 5-foot-2 Ms. Martin. "A violinist with a strong personality," Griffiths understated. "Fairly brilliant," Roos enthused. Ysaye was known as "the quiet magician" for the mesmerizing aura he created in live performance. Martin's playing here is a powerful spellbinding, her own charms undiminished by Ysaye's legend.

The final track, the "Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 28" by Camille Saint-Saens (another work composed for virtuoso, Spanish violinist Pablo de Sarasate) is a return to the playground for Martin and Franklin; and a return to the "keen interplay" between the duo that Griffiths found in their live performance of Corigliano's Sonata. Skipping joy and dancing bow chase melancholy round and round, halting now and then for a bit of comical, chordal marching (or is it stalking?) before the dance starts up again.

Is this fun? Oh yes, "Janice Martin, violinist, with Rachel Franklin, pianist" is a fun listen, Capella star bright in spirit and play, and still commanding your attention and your ears more than 20 years after the recorded fact

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American violinist Janice Martin tours extensively as a featured performer with a unique array of talents, combining classical and crossover violin, piano, vocal and aerial acrobatics to create visually stunning concerts for orchestra and ensemble.

Pianist Rachel Franklin was born in the UK and is based in Maryland, where she teaches and performs as soloist and ensemble artist, and with her jazz group SONOS. For two decades she was Education Programs Lecturer for the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, and, since 2020, has become one of the Smithsonian Associates’ most popular live-streaming lecturers.