David Barton

On Instrument of the Devil, gifted young violinist Rachel Barton Pine displays her technical prowess and the instrument's emotional range in an unusual, virtuosic program that, in her words, offers listeners something other than "the usual potpourri of encores."

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine’s lifelong love of the blues, combined with her determination to uncover and commission works by black composers, has led to this album of pieces soaked in the blues tradition of the 19th-century Deep South. From the riotous opening “Blues (Deliver My Soul)” by David Baker to Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s bold Blue/s Forms for Solo Violin and Errollyn Wallen’s modernist “Woogie Boogie,” plus music by Billy Childs, William Grant Still, and more, it’s a dazzling, sophisticated collection. Barton Pine has this music in her blood, and she relishes the blues’ rich vein with playing of rhythmic freedom and ravishing beauty—and an incredible sense of fun.