Il Violino Boemo - Benda, Gurecky, Jiranek / Torgersen, Luks, Masek
Supraphon

Il Violino Boemo - Benda, Gurecky, Jiranek / Torgersen, Luks, Masek

$31.99 Only 3 left

In stock - typically processed within 24-48 hours

Spend $60 or more and shipping's on us!

Details

Composer
FRANTI?EK GURECKÝ JIRÁNEK
Artist
Torgersen, Luks, Ma?Ek
Format
CD
Discs
1
Label
Supraphon
Released
Jan 28, 2014
Catalog #
SU4151-2
UPC
099925415129

About

Supraphon’s survey of music in 18th-century Prague includes two sonatas by Frantisek Benda, one by Carl Heinrich Graun that used to pass as a work by Benda, a sonata by Josef Antonín Gurecký, and two by Frantisek Jiránek. Of these musical figures, Benda may be the best known; Dr. Charles Burney met him and considered him original in his time (although, like Giuseppe Tartini, Benda placed primary importance on the singing quality of his compositions for violin).


The program, played at a pitch approaching A=415, opens with Benda’s Sonata in Bb Major. In the opening Largo, violinist Lenka Torgersen demonstrates, with sonorous support from cellist Libor Masek, with what vocal purity Benda’s lines can flow; but she brings a lively playfulness to the ensuing Allegro , and to the following rapid movement. The first of Jiránek’s two sonatas, in F Major, shares in its opening Adagio the singing quality of Benda’s works, but Torgersen encrusts the Allegro that follows with spunky ornamentation and gives the final Tempo di Menuet an ingratiatingly zesty performance. The third sonata on the program, again by Benda, brings another engaging dialogue in the graceful opening Siciliano between the solo violin and the continuo group. The Allegro that follows contains some brief passages on the G-string; and, digging into them, Torgersen reveals the strength in this register of the 1760 violin by Sebastian Klotz upon which she plays, a register earlier composers generally avoided because of the massiveness and therefore the balkiness of the lowest string. She also spits defiantly in the movement’s across-the-string staccatos. These staccatos reappear in modified form during the thematically similar finale.


The sonata formerly attributed to Benda (and bearing catalog numbers for both composers) demands from the performers a similar lyrical affinity, especially, perhaps, in its Andante . Gurecký’s four-movement work (the others on the program all fall into three movements) includes in its second movement passages novel in harmony and some attempts to extend the violin part’s ambit upward; but its overall style fits into that prevalent in the rest of the program. The recital closes with a Sonata in C Major by Jiránek, at more than 12 minutes the longest of the program’s works. Its Adagio gives Torgersen an opportunity to indulge in pregnant rhetorical pauses, and Luks offsets its singing lyricism with flashing runs. The ensemble makes an especially strong case for the gavotte and variations that constitute the finale.


Leila Schayegh, Václav Luks, and Felix Knecht made a selection of Benda’s sonatas on Glossa 922507, Fanfare 35:6, as did Hans-Joachim Berg and Naoko Akutagawa on Naxos 8.572307, Fanfare 35:4. Berg produces a tone more nasal in quality and occasionally sounds as though he shifts awkwardly between positions, but he has the advantage of playing Benda’s ornamentation. Schayegh, on the other hand, playing some of the sonatas with fortepiano, deploys a tone lighter in weight but flexible and expressive. For those interested only in Benda’s works, it might be a toss-up, but for the entire program, Torgersen’s is hard to beat, with its lyrical and at times jaunty performances, and deserves to be recommended to almost all listeners.

FANFARE: Robert Maxham

Tracklist 19 tracks

  1. 1 I. Largo 03:02
    Track
    1
    Title
    I. Largo
    Duration
    03:02
    Composer
    Franz Benda
    Performer
    Lenka Torgersen, Libor Mašek, Václav Luks
  2. 2 II. Allegro ma non molto 04:18
    Track
    2
    Title
    II. Allegro ma non molto
    Duration
    04:18
    Composer
    Franz Benda
    Performer
    Lenka Torgersen, Libor Mašek, Václav Luks
  3. 3 III. Amoroso 02:49
    Track
    3
    Title
    III. Amoroso
    Duration
    02:49
    Composer
    Franz Benda
    Performer
    Lenka Torgersen, Libor Mašek, Václav Luks
  4. 4 I. Adagio 02:50
    Track
    4
    Title
    I. Adagio
    Duration
    02:50
    Composer
    František Jiránek
    Performer
    Lenka Torgersen, Václav Luks
  5. 5 II. Allegro 02:42
    Track
    5
    Title
    II. Allegro
    Duration
    02:42
    Composer
    František Jiránek
    Performer
    Lenka Torgersen, Václav Luks
  6. 6 III. Tempo di Menuet 03:14
    Track
    6
    Title
    III. Tempo di Menuet
    Duration
    03:14
    Composer
    František Jiránek
    Performer
    Lenka Torgersen, Václav Luks
  7. 7 I. Siciliano 02:57
    Track
    7
    Title
    I. Siciliano
    Duration
    02:57
    Composer
    Franz Benda
    Performer
    Lenka Torgersen, Libor Mašek, Václav Luks
  8. 8 II. Allegro 04:06
    Track
    8
    Title
    II. Allegro
    Duration
    04:06
    Composer
    Franz Benda
    Performer
    Lenka Torgersen, Libor Mašek, Václav Luks
  9. 9 III. Presto 03:04
    Track
    9
    Title
    III. Presto
    Duration
    03:04
    Composer
    Franz Benda
    Performer
    Lenka Torgersen, Libor Mašek, Václav Luks
  10. 10 I. Andante 02:50
    Track
    10
    Title
    I. Andante
    Duration
    02:50
    Composer
    Franz Benda
    Performer
    Lenka Torgersen, Václav Luks
  11. 11 II. Allegro 03:57
    Track
    11
    Title
    II. Allegro
    Duration
    03:57
    Composer
    Franz Benda
    Performer
    Lenka Torgersen, Václav Luks
  12. 12 III. Cantabile 03:33
    Track
    12
    Title
    III. Cantabile
    Duration
    03:33
    Composer
    Franz Benda
    Performer
    Lenka Torgersen, Václav Luks
  13. 13 I. Adagio 02:37
    Track
    13
    Title
    I. Adagio
    Duration
    02:37
    Composer
    Josef Antonín Gurecký
    Performer
    Lenka Torgersen, Libor Mašek, Václav Luks
  14. 14 II. Allegro 03:44
    Track
    14
    Title
    II. Allegro
    Duration
    03:44
    Composer
    Josef Antonín Gurecký
    Performer
    Lenka Torgersen, Libor Mašek, Václav Luks
  15. 15 III. Cantabile 02:15
    Track
    15
    Title
    III. Cantabile
    Duration
    02:15
    Composer
    Josef Antonín Gurecký
    Performer
    Lenka Torgersen, Libor Mašek, Václav Luks
  16. 16 IV. Vivace 03:10
    Track
    16
    Title
    IV. Vivace
    Duration
    03:10
    Composer
    Josef Antonín Gurecký
    Performer
    Lenka Torgersen, Libor Mašek, Václav Luks
  17. 17 I. Adagio 03:54
    Track
    17
    Title
    I. Adagio
    Duration
    03:54
    Composer
    František Jiránek
    Performer
    Lenka Torgersen, Václav Luks
  18. 18 II. Allegro 03:30
    Track
    18
    Title
    II. Allegro
    Duration
    03:30
    Composer
    František Jiránek
    Performer
    Lenka Torgersen, Václav Luks
  19. 19 III. Gavotte 04:45
    Track
    19
    Title
    III. Gavotte
    Duration
    04:45
    Composer
    František Jiránek
    Performer
    Lenka Torgersen, Václav Luks