Classical Music

The Chinese composer and violinist Ma Sicong was born in Haifeng in Guangdong province in 1912, and was among the relatively few Chinese musicians of his generation to study abroad. He settled in America in 1967.

VIOLIN CONCERTO NO. 3 ETERNAL

Classical Music

SARASATE Zigeunerweisen. Airs espagnols. Miramar-Zortzico. Peternas-Capriccio espagnol. Nocturne-sérénade. Viva Sevilla! Fantasie sur La Dame Blanche • Tianwa Yang (vn); Ernest Martínez-Izquierdo, cond; Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra • NAXOS 8.572191 (53:46)


Naxos has now issued two of seven projected volumes of works by Pablo Sarasate, featuring the Chinese violinist Tianwa Yang. I described the first of these (8.557767, 30:4) as being “like first love” and the second (8.570094, 31:5), with some urgency, “to anyone who can recognize the sound of a violin.” Now she’s back with a third volume, this time with orchestra. I’ve always taken Jascha Heifetz’s version of Zigeunerweisen from 1937 with Barbirolli as the paragon, though Sarasate also recorded it (twice—in 1898 and 1904). Yang’s perhaps more subtle and richer in gestural nuance than either in the first section, though not so brilliant as either Heifetz or the composer in the last one. In Sarasate’s Airs espagnols , which Joseph Gold’s notes place on almost as high a level, she doesn’t face such transcendental competition; her authority, tonal and technical, makes her a stunning exponent, especially if you can get out of your head the sound Sarasate produced, even realized imperfectly in early acoustic recordings. The piece includes melodies familiar to listeners (one, for example, strongly reminiscent of his Navarra for two violins). David Oistrakh recorded the Zortzico, Adios montanas mias , op. 37, with Vladimir Yampolsky in 1951 (Sarasate wrote another Zortzico, Zortzico de Iparraguirre , op. 39, in 1898). The Miramar sounds similar, with its 5/8 meter, but Yang doesn’t bring the same haunting sensibility to the piece, though she plays it with aggressive dash. (Sarasate also recorded it, with piano, but his performance doesn’t minimize the metric irregularity’s effect.) Peternas brings a similar mix. Yang’s harmonics (one of Sarasate’s favorite devices) remain pure and her left hand pizzicato’s crisp. But her playing sounds more brash than brilliant, more strenuous than effortless or silvery, even though it’s obvious that the difficulties don’t give her second thought. Joseph Gold mentions Chopin in discussing the Nocturne-sérénade , and the comparison may be apt. Sarasate made an arrangement of Chopin’s Nocturne, op. 9/2, and recorded it in 1904.


Viva Sevilla !, from 1896, sets up a tangy interaction between violin and orchestra that the performers realize with infectious enthusiasm. Sarasate’s operatic Fantasy on Boieldieu’s Dame Blanche came quite early (op. 3) in his output, preceded by a fantasy on Verdi’s Forza del destino, op. 1, and Hommage à Rossini , op. 2. While Gold describes op. 3 as the composer’s “grandest endeavor,” it’s never achieved the renown of Sarasate’s fantasies on Carmen or Faust, though the earlier work represents a portent of things to come and may not have achieved the popularity of the later works because of the relatively less-widespread recognition, at least nowadays, of the opera on which it’s based. Yang and Izquierdo play it with authority and zesty piquancy. Her bow snaps in the technical passages and she revels in the finale’s carnival-like virtuosity (Bottesini tapped a similarly jovial vein in his fantasies for double bass). If the third volume isn’t so overwhelming as Yang’s first two, this cleanly played, enthusiastically accompanied, and clearly recorded third volume (the first with violin and orchestra) nevertheless deserves a strong recommendation.


FANFARE: Robert Maxham

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

BÉRIOT 12 Scènes ou Caprices, op. 109. 9 Studies. Prélude ou Improvisation, op. posth • Bella Hristova (vn) • NAXOS 8.572267 (68:02)


With the recent rash of recordings of his works, by now the music of Charles-Auguste de Bériot should have become almost as familiar to collectors as it has been to violinists, both teachers and students. Although probably few pupils work through his Méthode (1858) at the beginning of their academic careers, they encounter his concertos halfway through, and if they’ve persisted, study his 60 concert studies as a sort of gateway, beside Dont’s op. 35 and Gaviniès’s Matinées , to the transcendental technical studies of Paganini and Ernst. Unlike Dont’s more patterned études, however, Bériot’s take the form of character pieces: even the simple melodies and scales in the Méthode recall music for the salon more vividly than music for the studio.


From the outset, it’s clear that Bériot cut the Douze Scènes ou Caprices from the same cloth. The opening study, “La séparation,” begins almost as bleakly and hauntingly as does Sibelius’s Violin Concerto and includes a buzzing middle section in double-stops that draws upon the violin’s less familiar timbral regions as effectively as do some of Bartók’s duos. At least Bella Hristova plays the study that way, taking maximum advantage of the rich and dramatic possibilities for characterization it offers. If No. 2, “La polka,” doesn’t attain the same level of portraiture, it exceeds the First Study in brilliance and complexity, and Hristova proves herself more than equal to its demands. No. 3, “Le lézard,” brings snaky (lizard-like) chromatic lines, while No. 4 (“Le départ”) frames passagework with a lament. No. 5, “La fougue,” contains a mix of scalar and arpeggiated lines that climb chromatically in the middle section, punctuated by explosions of double-stops. No. 10, “Marche russe,” may not sound particularly Slavic, but it relies on the usual stock characters to carry its drama forward.


The Nine Studies, while not bearing titles (except for the last, written “in imitation of the old masters”), also express severally a range of moods that should qualify them for parlor performance, even if the first four remain as intensely patterned as the 60 Concert Studies (the Fifth, Melody, the Sixth, “Gulnare,” and the Seventh, March, offer more developed character studies). The posthumous Prélude ou Improvisation , written, as the notes state, largely without bar lines, might, except for its length (nine minutes and then some), be welcome in an occasional appearance on the concert stage in place of, say, Kreisler’s Recitativo e Scherzo.


Bruce R. Schueneman’s insert notes point out the similarity of Bériot’s arsenal to Paganini’s; and a cursory examination of the scores may perhaps make them seem more similar than they appear upon closer examination: in Bériot’s studies, the difficulties have all been wrought in conformity with positions achievable by a normal hand, while Paganini’s notoriously require the skill of a contortionist. Nevertheless, Bériot tailors these difficulties to his intended performers, and both the easiest and the most difficult of his works (and some, especially the studies, reach a very high level of difficulty) make a brilliant, thoroughly violinistic effect. Marc Pincherle likened Vivaldi to Kreisler in writing music that achieved a maximum of brilliance with a minimum of effort; he might have included Bériot.


Bella Hristova’s consistently elegant and richly characterized performances camouflage the difficulty of these studies, though they seem to reach at least the level of the 60 Concert Studies. The engineers captured the tonal splendor of her 1655 Nicolò Amati in St. John Chrysostom Church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada, on February 12–15, 2009. Collectors of all kinds should find this compilation uncommonly interesting; but to violinists, it should be irresistible. It would be sad to learn that Hristova didn’t choose to record this repertoire only because a contract to do so had been offered and didn’t feel as sympathetic to the composer as she seems. In any case, strongly recommended.


FANFARE: Robert Maxham

LE SACRE DU PRINTEMPS & VIOLIN

Classical Music

MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto. SCHUMANN Fantasy in C for Violin and Orchestra, op. 131. BRUCH Violin Concerto No. 1 • Benjamin Schmid (vn); Daniel Raiskin, cond; Rhenish PStO • OEHMS 725 (65:41)


Benjamin Schmid, playing the 1731 Lady Jeanne Stradivari, gives an account of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto that leans to the tough, fibrous side; his energy, though perhaps not so white-hot as Heifetz’s, nevertheless will carry most listeners along willy-nilly. Schmid combines abundant nuance with sensitivity in the first movement’s lyrical second theme (which he enlivens with almost playful accents); all this assures the listener’s continued interest, familiar though the work has become. His bow snaps in the passagework throughout. Daniel Raiskin and the orchestra’s stormy account of the score complements Schmid’s strong-minded reading of the solo. Schmid manages to make the cadenza sound almost like an improvisation, and he brings the movement to a rousing conclusion after his energetic recapitulation of the movement’s thematic material. The slow movement also contains individual nuances that stamp the performance as someone’s (even if it might not be Schmid’s in particular) rather than just anyone’s; the same combination of grit and brilliance that personalized Schmid’s reading of the first movement reappears in the finale, with the orchestra occasionally highlighting passages that might go unnoticed in less personal performances. The conclusion is pure adrenaline.


Schumann’s Fantasy, written in response to a suggestion by Joseph Joachim, offers a vehicle in which a violinist can display both well-stropped technique and musical acumen. Schmid is fully equal to the dual challenge; supported by the buoyant accompaniment, he gives an account at the same time rousingly and confidently virtuosic and musically penetrating.


Schmid seems to strain to communicate a stronger sense of the first movement of Bruch’s First Concerto, though he takes flight in the lyrical second theme. The very strength of his tone robs the second movement of some of the tenderness often associated with it, although in the last passages he winds down to a hushed sense of mystery. The finale is made to order for a violinist of Schmid’s predispositions, and his performance cuts and slashes with abandon.


The engineers for the two recording sessions (in February 2008 for Mendelssohn and Schumann and December 2007 for Bruch) bring the soloist slightly forward without violating what many listeners consider a natural balance. Recommended, most strongly, perhaps for the Fantasy, but for the other performances as well—despite the competition.


FANFARE: Robert Maxham

SAINT-LUBIN Grand duo concertant. 1 Fantaisie sur un thème de Lucia di Lammermoor. Thème original et Etude de S. Thalberg. Adagio religioso. 1 Potpourri on Themes from Auber’s “La fiancée.” 1 Salonstücke: Nocturne and Rondino; 1 Nocturne and Polonaise 1 • Anastasia Khitruk (vn); Elizaveta Kopelman (pn) 1 • NAXOS 8.572019 (75:16)


Ludwig Spohr’s student, Léon de Saint-Lubin (1805–50), may not be a household name to general listeners, but violinists should recognize him as the author of six fairly difficult studies, op. 42, and of the brilliant Fantaisie on the sextet from Donizetti’s Lucia , a virtuoso showpiece that Ruggiero Ricci recorded (issued on the CD label 111 as URS-91010). The rest of the program, consisting of virtually unknown pieces like the genial, extended Grand duo concertant (nearly 28 minutes in length), nevertheless holds its own. Klaus Martin Kopitz’s notes point out the occasionally Schubertian quality of this work, most apparent perhaps in the first and third movements, though in the agitated passages and conclusion of the more flamboyant finale as well, while the Scherzo sounds more Beethovenian (although Schubert may be seen to reappear in the central section). Anastasia Khitruk and Elizaveta Kopelman both play this work with great authority and with technical and tonal command.


The Fantaisie , written for solo violin, mines the instrument’s technical resources in as comprehensive a way as do works by Wieniawski ( Variations on the Austrian National Anthem ) or Ernst ( Variations on “The Last Rose of Summer” )—if not exploring the extreme ranges and combinations of techniques that these test, impressive enough in their own way. Khitruk plays the work with a more sumptuous tone than Ricci did, making more of its melodiousness than of its hair-raising difficulties, which Ricci emphasized in his performance. If Nathan Milstein developed his ability to play unviolinistic passages by reading Chopin on the violin, Saint-Lubin may have achieved similar results by working through piano studies, and he wrote out his daunting transcription of this one by Sigismund Thalberg. It shares the same general style as the Fantaisie : a rather slow-moving foundation encrusted with layers of technically stunning, fast-moving figuration of various kinds. Khitruk displays a more lyrical side not only of Saint-Lubin’s muse but of her own as well in the Adagio religioso , a piece that showcases the power of her tone on the G string and her affinity for its more Romantic sensibilities. The piano joins the violin in closer partnership in the Potpourri on Themes from Auber’s “La fiancée,” an elegant confection, but not nearly so sweet as the Nocturne and Rondino and the Nocturne and Polonaise. In these, Khitruk affects a manner generally more elegant than probing, dazzling, or daunting, though the Rondino ends dashingly, the second Nocturne contains its moments of impassioned declamation, and the Polonaise opens with considerable verve.


Those who wish to hear violinistic fireworks may be disappointed in the program: except for the two solo pieces, Saint-Lubin emerges in it more as a composer seeking general recognition in the serious and salon repertoire than as a composer seeking to stun audiences with virtuoso barnburners. But the Fantaisie and Thalberg paraphrase should satisfy anyone; and everything has been accorded first-rate, revealing recorded sound. Recommended.


FANFARE: Robert Maxham


Virtuosity with elegance throughout

Naxos continues its exploration of the byways of the violinistically arcane with this disc devoted to Saint-Lubin. Rather like Rode, his is a name more honoured in the breach than in concert performance these days. Saint-Lubin was born in Turin in 1805 to a French family that had fled the Revolution (he was actually christened Napoléon-Antoine-Eugène). At the age of about four the family moved to Hamburg and subsequently he studied with Spohr, and then gravitated to Vienna. Here he met Beethoven, who wrote a small cadenza for him to play in 1822. Having then heard Paganini he withdrew to an estate in Hungary, that of an aristocratic patron, to work on his technique, but by 1830 he was back in the public eye as concertmaster of the Royal Municipal Theatre in Berlin, where he died at an early age in 1850.

The major work in this first volume is the Grand Duo Concertant, published in 1847. It's a curious hybrid, with the piano writing often sounding decidedly Beethovenian whilst the violin spins a lyric line that sounds part derived from Schubert. It's very well written for both instruments and extremely well paced. There's grace and also a touch of drollery, maybe even frivolity in the opening movement, whilst the second has a strong Beethovenian cast to it, and is full of verve. There's a warm slow movement, nothing too fulsome to over balance the schema, which sports a perky and extrovert B section. A bright, keen Allegretto finishes the work in style.

The other works fall into well established genres of writing - the operatic variations, the salon charmers, and the mildly lachrymose sweetmeat. The Fantaisie sur un thème de Lucia di Lammermoor obviously falls into the first category, a display piece of considerable virtuosity, calling for a battery of resources and majoring on left hand pizzicato and tremolandi to fan the flames; clearly a post-Paganinian confection, which Anastasia Khitruk digs into with chewy vibrato and great panache. The Potpourri on themes from Auber's La Fiancée is another paraphrase, just as demanding, but also exuding veritable whiffs of stage paint. The Thème Original et Etude de S. Thalberg, Op. 45a is cleverly wrought - an arrangement for violin of a piano etude it transfers to the new medium extremely convincingly, even exuding as it does considerable bowing difficulties. It was dedicated jointly to Bazzini and Sivori so Saint-Lubin was reaching out to the best. As one would expect the Adagio Religioso is warmly textured but fortunately not too religiose. And the salon morceaux that end the disc are full of lightweight charm and rather generic dance patterns.

With fine recorded sound and notes this first volume gets off to a cracking start. Khitruk and Elizaveta Kopelman are first class ambassadors for this kind of music and marry virtuosity with elegance throughout.

-- Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International

Complementing his highly praised Naxos series of Turina' piano music, Jordi Maso Acute joins Eva Leo Acute to present Turina's two violin sonatas.

Classical Music