Sergei Ivanovich TANEYEV
Concert Suite; Entr'acte; Oresteya Overture
Helsinki Philharmonic
Orchestra/Vladimir Ashkenazy (Pekka Kuusisto, violin)
Ondine ODE 959-2 [65
mins]
Crotchet
Colin Clarke has welcomed a chamber music
CD of Taneyev (1856-1915) as demonstrating that this teacher of famous
Russian composers is himself under-represented in the catalogue nowadays;
certainly Seen&Heard has never been called
upon to assess his music in live performance.This CD gives no support for
that contention. The Oresteya Overture begins promisingly in a Tchaikovskian
vein, but the material and its working are generally undistinguished and
its final peroration and conclusion brings to mind a nineteenth century organist
who sits on the final chord of a big work interminably. The 42 minute Concert
Suite (1909) for Leopold Auer begins with a Prelude and Gavotte which explore
violin techniques of the period. At nearly a quarter of an hour, the Variations
movement has some attractive sections and might be worth playing in concert.
The suite ends with a typical tarantella to show off the soloist's virtuosity,
but taken as a whole the Suite outstays its welcome. Pekka Kuusisto plays
securely and with a sweet tone; he fails to bring the 'lift' and imagination
with which a top violinist, such as Shaham, Mutter or Vengerov (to name a
few), might have seized it to convince us that it was worth spending three
quarters of an hour of our time in Taneyev's company. The recording is good
and Ashkenazy does all that could be expected for what this reviewer thinks
is a lost cause.
Peter Grahame Woolf
