DAVID HAYS

• Faure: Berceuse (from Dolly)

“This collection [shares] a few selections with Rachel Barton Pine’s collection…but otherwise the program is very different. Hays is an excellent violinist, and though he doesn’t have a high-profile solo career like [Rachel] Barton-Pine, I find his recording every bit as enjoyable as hers. There is very little musical duplication, so I see no reason not to own both.”

Fine, American Record Guide [November/December 2013]

“…Sergei Lyapunov’s Berceuse, allowing the violin to soar in the upper registers, serves to showcase the tonal qualities of Hays’s violin… Hays’s tone sounds richly suggestive when he dips into the lower registers. [In Godard’s Berceuse] Collins sets the mood sensitively for Hays’s exploratory, recitative-like entrance, and the tune follows in a sweetly redolent performance that holds its own in its own way. In Brahms’s familiar, brief Wiegenlied, the duo recreates a similar sensibility—simple, serene, and convincing… The duo gives a haunting account of Szymanowski’s Notturno that allows them to frame a complex stylistic musical argument… they effectively recreate the poignancy of Tchaikovsky’s Lullaby in a Storm and bring the program to a gentle end with Grieg’s ‘At the Cradle.’"

Robert Maxham, Fanfare - Issue 36:6 [July/Aug 2013]

“This offering of lullabies and nocturnes by violinist David Hays and pianist Peter Collins is pure delight. Consisting of 18 short pieces by as many composers, it amounts to a good, old-fashioned “encore recital” with a theme. There’s not a bad track in the entire program. Or to paraphrase Shakespeare, there is not one of these 18 choice selections that is so mean that it would not do honor to a memorable recital. As arranged and programmed by Hays and Collins, these pieces display a variety of colors, moods, and styles… a program that never fails to deliver unexpected pleasure.”

Phil Muse, Audio Society of Atlanta [February 2013]

The lullaby has a musical heritage spanning centuries, and it exists in every culture. The French, especially, have cultivated the “sleep song” as art music through the berceuse (cradle song). The nocturne, or “night evocation,” is music related to the berceuse through themes of sleep, dreams
(waking or sleeping) and visions. Many composers have been inspired to contribute to these genres. The simple, repetitive structure of the lullaby and its relatively peaceful music lowers blood pressure and calms the mind. Its music possesses a timeless quality that is particularly coveted in an age of instant messaging and constant global communication. Music therapists have discovered amazing results through the use of the lullaby with adult patients. The present collection brings together some of the finest works in this genre for violin and piano. The works share the related themes of music of dreams and sleep, and showcase a considerable range of harmonic language, emotion and style.


David Hays is a former concertmaster of the Tanglewood Institute’s Young Artists Orchestra, and has performed with the Minnesota Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Orchestra, among many others. As a chamber musician, Hays has performed live on WFMT radio in Chicago with the Sheridan Chamber Players and was a finalist at the 1998 Banff International String Quartet Competition as co-principal violinist of the Fry Street Quartet. As a member of the Hawthorne Trio, he has performed throughout the United States, Poland, Czech Republic and England. On baroque violin, Hays toured
and recorded with Minneapolis-based Minstrelsy! for nine seasons, and has appeared with Temple of Apollo, Lyra Concert, Newberry Consort and Chicago Baroque Ensemble. Hays taught violin and chamber music at Northwestern University’s National High School Music Institute for 15 summers and served on faculty at the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute. He has recorded on the Encore Music Presents, Lyrichord and Musical Arts Society labels. Currently, Hays serves as Professor of Music at Missouri State University and concertmaster of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra. In recent seasons, he has performed solo works by Lalo, Saint-Saëns, Beethoven, Sarasate and Mozart with orchestra and has appeared in solo and duo recitals in New Orleans, Chicago, Minneapolis and Tulsa, and in Bulgaria.

Peter Collins has performed a wide variety of repertoire ranging from the complete piano sonatas of Beethoven and Mozart to contemporary works. At Missouri State University, Collins originated the Missouri Chamber Players and toured Scandinavia three times with members of the ensemble in performances of music of American composers. His important European performances also include solo performances at the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw and the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. Collins has a large catalog of recordings, including releases on the Albany and Centaur labels that feature works of living American composers, music by women composers and 19th
century piano music from his native city of New Orleans. Currently Professor of Music– Piano and Coordinator of the Keyboard Division at Missouri State University, Peter Collins received his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the Peabody Conservatory under the instruction of Lillian Freundlich. After winning awards in several piano competitions — including the Washington International Piano Competition, University of Maryland International Piano Competition, American Chopin Competition and American Beethoven Foundation competition — he received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Michigan as a student of Louis Nagel. Collins has also
served on the faculties of the Interlochen Arts Academy, Missouri Fine Arts Academy and Bösendorfer International Piano Academy in Austria.

FRANZ NERUDA (1843-1915)
Berceuse

IGOR STRAVINSKY (1882-1971)
Berceuse (from The Firebird Suite)

SERGEI LYAPUNOV (1859-1924)
Berceuse, Op. 11, No. 1 (from Transcendental Études)

FRITZ KREISLER (1875-1962)
Berceuse Romantique, Op. 9

JOHN FIELD (1782-1837)
Nocturne No. 6 in F major

FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN (1811-1849)
Nocturne in D-flat major, Op. 27, No. 2

ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
Abendlied, Op. 85, No. 12 (Evening Song)

BENJAMIN GODARD (1849-1895)
Berceuse (from Jocelyn)

JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Wiegenlied (Cradle Song)

CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862-1918)
Rêverie

FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797-1828)
Lullaby

FRANZ LISZT (1811-1886)
Nocturne No. 3: Seliger Tod (Blessed Death)

KAROL SZYMANOWSKI (1882-1937)
Notturno, Op. 28, No. 1

ALAN HOVHANESS (1911-2000)
Oror, Op. 1 (Lullaby)

MAURICE RAVEL (1875-1937)
Berceuse sur le nom Gabriel Fauré

GABRIEL FAURÉ (1845-1924)
Berceuse, Op. 56, No. 1 (from Dolly Suite)

PETER ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893)
Lullaby in a Storm, Op. 54, No. 10

EDVARD GRIEG (1843-1907)
At the Cradle, Op. 68, No. 5 (from Lyric Pieces)

MSR Classics