Duo Concertante (Nancy Dahn, violin & Timothy Steeves, piano) is celebrating nearly three decades of international touring and performing with a new release. Maier Franck Schumann: Violin Sonatas will be released on the Delphian Records label on August 22.
The repertoire focuses on the Romantic sonata and its expressive possibilities.
Robert Schumann wrote his Sonata No. 1 in a mere four days in 1851. The work pushes the envelope when it comes to notions of Classical restraint propriety. The emotional intensity of the Sonata would prove inspirational to generations of future composers.
Amanda Maier’s B minor Sonata was composed in 1874, and won a prize from the Swedish Art Music Society. César Franck’s much loved A major Sonata rounds out the album.
Duo Concertante (Nancy Dahn, violin & Timothy Steeves, piano): The Interview
They’ve been a personal and professional duo for decades. “I guess 1998,” says Dahn. “That’s a long time ago.” It’s when they officially became Duo Concertante, performing ensemble.
“At the very beginning, we thought we’d start out by learning the Beethoven Kreutzer Sonata. Why not start with the most difficult?” she laughs.
Certainly, toughing it out over a difficult piece can be a precursor to a good working relationship. As they began to tour and perform together regularly, they agreed on a dual focus on standard repertoire and new music.
“It’s been a really rich experience focusing on both,” Nancy adds.
The Duo has commissioned more than 65 original works from Canadian and international composers over their career as an ensemble, including Chan Ka Nin, R. Murray Schafer, Kati Agócs, Andrew Staniland, Kelly-Marie Murphy, Alice Ho, Omar Daniel, Linda Bouchard, and Jean Lesage, among many others.
The Tuckamore Festival
The couple founded the Tuckamore Chamber Music Festival, based in St. John’s Newfoundland, in 2001. The 2025 edition took place from June 23 to July 6. The program included 25 concerts spread across 25 venues in the region.
“This year, we celebrated our 25th festival. That was kind of exciting, 25 years,” Steven says.
They’ve expanded on their usual summer programming to include a few more concerts throughout the season. “We have a huge educational festival as well,” Steeves says. This year’s cohort included 23 young string players and pianists who worked with seasoned artists. He reports that some of those budding musical partnerships will result in tours and performances later this year.
“This year, for the 25th year festival, we really went crazy,” Nancy adds. That included an additional 37 concerts across the entire province, incorporating Labrador, and as far as Hopedale. “These really remote communities,” she says. “Newfoundland is huge. Just getting to the other side is 10 hours in your car. It was a great way to celebrate 25 years.”
Many of those concerts were necessarily held in smaller venues, but they were routinely full of appreciative audiences.
“The audiences were really hungry to hear classical,” Dahn says.
The Repertoire
The music on the album comes in part from their history of performing together.
“We’ve played some of these a lot,” Nancy notes. “The Franck Sonata — it’s been a pillar of our repertoire.”
“We’ve been playing the Schumann for about 20 or 25 years,” Steeves says.
“For me personally, I did not appreciate the genius of Schumann until later in life,” Nancy adds. “It took me a while living with his work to recognize his uniqueness.”
The versions captured on the album are interpreted with years of experience. Maier’s Sonata is the outlier.
“Maier is very fresh,” Timothy says. “Terrific piece. She was a fabulous violinist and an amazing composer.” As he points out, and common for the time, once Amanda married and had children, any professional aspirations were set aside. The Swedish violinist and composer died at the young age of 41 in 1894.
Her work fits neatly between Schumann and Franck.
“It complements the Schumann,” Timothy says.
Nancy notes that the work of the neglected composer first came to her attention via a thesis that had been written on Maier. One of her violin students at Memorial University learned the Sonata.
“I said to Tim, you know, this is a really, really great piece,” Dahn recalls. “We play it a lot now.”
“It’s a really great piano piece too,” Steeves adds. “The two instruments work together really, really well. It’s really exciting to listen to and a lot of fun to play.”
“She wrote this piece when she was 23. It’s just astounding,” says Nancy. “There’s already a really individual voice there, a personality.”
It’s another of the increasing number of works that have been rediscovered and/or revived after sometimes centuries of neglect when it comes to representation in the traditional canon of classical music.
“It’s not really true, the way we think, that the pieces we’ve ended up today are really the greatest pieces, because it hasn’t been an even playing field at all,” Dahn states.
From a 2023 performance:
Beloved Franck
“I think the Franck in particular — we’ve journeyed through the Franck.” As he points out, César Franck’s Violin Sonata in A Major was written as a wedding present for virtuoso Eugène Ysaÿe in 1886.
The music is often interpreted as describing a long term relationship from early passion to disillusionment to learning to live together in harmony.
“It’s all in the piece,” Nancy says.
It’s always been on their list of works to record, but it presented some unique challenges.
“I think that we’ve just come to understand it better over time,” Kahn says. “It was hard to find the right fit with other pieces. It’s a masterpiece on its own.”
For the ensemble, the recording represents a chance to work on music they were passionate about.
“Throughout your career, people are often suggesting, oh why don’t you record this,” he says. There is often an emphasis on what’s new and interesting “After 30 years, I know that Franck is a really popular piece, and the Schumann is a well known piece, but we’re not getting any younger,” he laughs. “The Franck’s been on that list for a long time.”
Recording in Edinburgh
“The actual recording process, we recorded it in Edinburgh and it was fabulous,” Steeves says.
The recording were captured in Greyfriars Kirk, a Church of Scotland cathedral founded in 1620. On the recording day, there was a throng of tourists on the street. “What we found was, JK Rowling had written Harry Potter across the street,” he says.
Delphian, their record company, made sure the added street noise didn’t make it into the recording.
“They’re fabulous to work with,” Timothy adds.
The Scottish recording company connection stems from his studies in Germany. A teacher retired to Scotland and recorded with Delphian. A simply inquiry from Timothy was all it took to be signed with the Edinburgh-based company.
“Edinburgh is such an incredible place,” Nancy says.
Their recording Maier Franck Schumann will be available on Amazon on August 22, 2025 [HERE] and via Delphian Records [HERE].
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