Volume 21 Issue 3 - November 2015

TERRY ROBBINS
Our own James Ehnes is back with a CD of early 18th century
works on Vivaldi Four Seasons
(Onyx 4134), with his regular partner
Andrew Armstrong at the piano for Tartini’s
Devil’s Trill Sonata and Leclair’s Tambourin
Sonata, and the Sydney Symphony under
Ehnes’ direction providing the support for the
title work. It’s the first time Ehnes has
recorded The Four Seasons, and it was
certainly worth the wait. The playing is everything
you would expect from him: it’s warm, intelligent and beautifully
judged, with sensitive and very effective orchestral
accompaniment.
The Tartini and Leclair sonatas are the opening works on the CD,
with Ehnes using the Kreisler edition of the Devil’s Trill sonata that
ends with the challenging cadenza that Kreisler added to the work.
Again, the playing by both performers is outstanding.
Another Onyx CD features live concert
recordings of violin music by Sergei Prokofiev
in terrific Frankfurt performances by Viktoria
Mullova (ONYX 4142). The Frankfurt Radio
Symphony Orchestra under Paavo Järvi
provides the support in the lovely Concerto
No.2 in G, Op.63, recorded over two days in
May 2012. Mullova is equally at home in the
work’s beautiful slow movement and in the music’s spikier passages.
Prokofiev’s two unaccompanied violin sonatas – the Sonata for
Two Violins in C, Op.56 and the Solo Violin Sonata in D, Op.115 –
were recorded in December 2014. Tedi Papavrami joins Mullova in the
former. The recorded ambience is full and resonant, especially in the
concerto, and there is no real sign of audience presence other than the
applause at the end of the works, which fades out after a few seconds.
There’s more live Prokofiev, as well as
Shostakovich and Rachmaninov on Russian
Concert, a 2-CD recording of the March 28,
2006 concert in Toronto’s Glenn Gould Studio
by the outstanding violist Rivka Golani and
pianist John Lenehan (Hungaroton HCD
32743-44). The concert opens and closes
with pieces (six on CD1, five on CD2) from
Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo and Juliet, transcribed
for viola and piano, with the composer’s permission, by the
Russian violist Vadim Borisovsky. Violist Douglas Perry joins Golani
and Lenehan for the final two pieces.
CD1 ends with a brooding performance of the Shostakovich Sonata
for Viola and Piano Op.147, the only work in the concert in its original
form, but the heart of the recital is the transcription – again by
Borisovsky – of Rachmaninov’s Cello Sonata in G Minor Op.19. More
than anything else on the two CDs this brings impassioned playing
from both performers, with the piano often predominant in a role that
is far from being merely an accompaniment. Despite the wonderful
viola playing, however, it’s difficult to ignore the fact that the instrument’s
pitch is higher and somewhat thinner than the cello’s, and the
absence of the latter’s strength, depth and richness, particularly in
the lower strings, alters the tonal relationship with the piano; at times
here, the music just seems to be too big for the instrument. Still, what
a performance!
The ever-reliable English cellist Steven Isserlis is back with yet
another delightful CD, this time with harpsichordist Richard Egarr on
Bach, Handel and Scarlatti Gamba Sonatas (Hyperion CDA68045).
Bach’s three sonatas – in G Major BWV1027,
D Major BWV1028 and G Minor BWV1029 –
are programmed around Domenico Scarlatti’s
Sonata in D Minor Kk90 and Handel’s Violin
Sonata in G Minor HWV364b. The Handel here
relies on an authentic manuscript version that
shows the opening of the violin part lowered
an octave and indicated as for viola da gamba.
In this work and the Scarlatti the players are
joined by Robin Michael on cello continuo.
Isserlis points out that playing with a harpsichord allows him “to
play as lightly as possible without ever courting inaudibility,” and the
result is playing of grace, lightness and warmth. Add the usual intelligent
and insightful booklet notes written by Isserlis in his inimitable
style – he even quotes Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tufnel at one point – and the
whole package is another winner.
The often-asked question “How could I
not have heard them play before?” raised its
head again this month when I played Four
Centuries, a new CD from pianist Susan
Merdinger and violinist David Yonan featuring
works by Mozart, Schumann, Bloch and the
Chicago-based contemporary composer Ilya
Levinson (Sheridan Music Studio susanmerdinger.org).
Both players have impressive résumés, but the Berlin-born
Yonan made his recital debut in Berlin, Moscow and St. Petersburg
at the age of 11. He also studied with the legendary Dorothy DeLay at
Juilliard. He has impeccable technique, a sumptuous tone and a real
depth to his playing.
A lovely performance of Mozart’s Sonata No.13 in B-flat Major,
K454 opens the disc, with the fine balance between the instruments
reminding us that the work was written as being “for Piano
and Violin.”
Schumann’s Sonata for Violin and Piano No.1 in A Minor, Op.105 is
also beautifully played, but it is the 20th century work, Bloch’s Suite
Hébraïque that really steals the show here. “It is the Jewish soul that
interests me,” said Bloch, and it’s that soul which is at the heart of this
three-movement suite and given a brilliant realization by Yonan. It’s
stunning playing.
The final work is the world premiere recording of Levinson’s Elegy:
Crossing the Bridge, a short piece dedicated to David Yonan, who gave
the world premiere in Chicago in 2011. Susan Merdinger is a terrific
partner throughout a highly satisfying CD.
Three of the great Czech string quartets
are featured on Janáček & Smetana String
Quartets, the latest CD from the Takács
Quartet (Hyperion CDA67997). All three
works, while being strongly nationalistic, are
also intensely personal.
Smetana openly admitted that his Quartet
No.1 in E Minor, From My Life, was a tone
picture of his life: the first movement is his
youthful yearnings; the second the dance music of his youth; the
third his first love – his future wife, whom he would lose to tuberculosis;
and the fourth his joy in incorporating nationalism in his mature
music, a joy that would be terminated by his growing deafness, represented
in the score by the sudden ominous high E harmonic pitch
that sounded in the composer’s ear. It’s obvious from the passionate
opening that this will be a rewarding performance, and it never
disappoints.
Janáček’s two quartets, subtitled The Kreutzer Sonata and Intimate
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