Double

Nikki and Timothy Chooi are brothers, both Queen Elisabeth Competition laureates, and two of the most internationally active violinists of their generation. Double is their debut recording together: a program of works by Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Moszkowski, Leclair, Sarasate, and Dvorák for two violins and piano, one of the lesser-documented formations in the chamber music canon. Joined by pianist Eunice Kim, the album spans three centuries of repertoire written for this combination. Between them, the Chooi brothers have performed at Carnegie Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Concertgebouw, and Suntory Hall, held the concertmaster chair at the Metropolitan Opera, and hold current positions with the Wiener Concert-Verein, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, and the University of Ottawa. The Chooi brothers are not conventional soloists in any sense - they learned music in the same room, and their work together reflects a shared musical vocabulary built over decades. Timothy performs the 1714 Dolphin Stradivarius, once played by Jascha Heifetz, while Nikki performs a 1713 Stradivarius - these two extraordinary instruments, made within a year of each other, lend the duo a unity of color rarely heard in recordings of this repertoire.