Philippe Graffin’s enterprise and ingenuity have been borne out in the world-premiere recording of the Violin Concerto by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (AV 0044), a disc of commissions and premieres by Lithuanian composer Vytautus Barkauskus (AV 2073), and the first recording of the original manuscript versions of Elgar’s Violin Concerto and Chausson’s Poème (AV 2091). He proves himself an equally eminent Mozartian on his latest Avie release, a two-disc set marking his second collaboration on Avie with the leading Japanese violist Nobuko Imai.

In the sprightly Sinfonia Concertante, two delightful Duos, the Third Concerto plus an Adagio and a Rondo, the multi-tasking Graffin takes on the roles of soloist, chamber musician, director, and composer of his own cadenzas. He is backed by the versatile Brabant Philharmonic Orchestra of Eindhoven, The Netherlands. The stylish packaging features another typical twist by the resourceful Graffin, who commissioned leading journalist and novelist Jessica Duchen to write a short story for the booklet, which also includes Avie’s trademark comprehensive documentation in three languages.

REVIEWS:

His playing combines Grumiaux’s elegance, Oistrakh’s warmth, Francescatti’s piquancy, and Stern’s élan. With nuances so plentiful and rhythms so zesty, even proponents of period performance shouldn’t cavil. The Third Concerto opens with an orchestral thematic statement that almost bounces off the disc; and it’s propelled by deeply dimensional recorded sound that allows the bass to resonate fully. Never in this movement, or in the others for that matter, does either soloist or orchestra indulge in self-conscious mannerism, even in Graffin’s reworking of Eugène Ysaÿe’s romantic cadenza, which Graffin makes fit into the work’s general aesthetic (Graffin himself wrote the cadenzas to the other movements and for both the Adagio and the Rondo). In fact, the finale clips along at a tempo that avoids any excessive seriousness; and Graffin’s ornaments add to the momentum. The Adagio benefits in the same way from Graffin’s refined approach, as does the Rondo, in which his passagework sparkles even more brightly than that in the Third Concerto’s finale.

Graffin and the orchestra imbue the opening passages of the Sinfonia concertante with pregnant excitement and expectation; and Graffin and Imai’s entrance doesn’t disappoint that expectation; the later tuttis renew the forward motion, if that were necessary after the brilliant solos. So this familiar courtesan has been transformed into a vigorous acrobat in the first and third movements, and into a poet in the second. Celebrity duos who have played Mozart’s duets for violin and viola sometimes include a part-time violist (Pinchas Zukerman and David Oistrakh, for example). But these later works benefit from Imai’s focused yet fully viola-like approach to her instrument, especially perhaps in the darker opening of the second in the set. Graffin doesn’t shy away from portamentos—which Imai doesn’t always duplicate when she answers his statements—but any stylistic differences hardly compromise the partnership that renders these performances so appealing.

[With] lifelike, reverberant recorded sound to complement the robust orchestral playing and the intimate dialogues of the duos, Avie has served up one of the tangier offerings—if not the tangiest of all—of the last several years. Urgently recommended, especially to those to whom Mozart may have grown too familiar (if that’s conceivable) during this period.

-- Fanfare