The title of this CD is self-explanatory, and the choice of repertoire is admirably varied, if not always memorably interpreted by Deborah Moriarty and Zhihua Tang. Several of Amy Beach’s Summer Dreams Op. 47 stand out for supple and pointed ensemble work, like the Elfin Tarantelle, while the duo’s sluggish Katy-dids yield to the Genova and Dimitrov duo’s faster, more incisive reading. Their Mozart G major Andante and Five Variations K. 501 comes off square and insufficiently varied in dynamics when heard alongside the classic Murray Perahia/Radu Lupu recording. Two solidly played Dvorák Slavonic Dances lack spring in the step, so to speak, but I like the elemental deliberation that the players bring to the second of Falla’s Spanish Dances from La Vida Breve.
Both Wang Jianzhong’s Colorful Clouds Chasing the Moon and Gong Huahua’s Mountain Harvest draw upon Chinese folk music, and benefit from the duo’s evocative performances. I could imagine lighter and more transparently shaped interpretations of Florence Price’s Three Negro Spirituals, not to mention less stiff and more idiomatic renditions of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Worth hearing for the Beach, Falla, Jianzhong, and Huahua selections.
