Aulos is certainly
excavating the Melodiya string back-catalogue
with assiduous intelligence. Alongside
their big Shafran
retrospective they have turned their
eye to David
Oistrakh and now to one of his most
prestigious pupils, the maverick Gidon
Kremer. Often seen as a Huberman de
nos jours it’s particularly appetising
to listen to the young violinist in
his Soviet years. He was born in 1947
and was therefore twenty-three when
he made the first sides here; there
are two sessions, made five years apart
and they chart the young musician until
1975 and the threshold of his international
career.
There are few more
contentious string players in the world
than Kremer and one can hear from these
earliest recordings how, despite his
studies with a tonalist as volcanic
and generous as Oistrakh, Kremer’s own
tonal resources were very much more
limited. He had something of a vogue
for playing baroque sonatas at around
this time but his Locatelli is compromised
by an insistent thin tone with scratchy
Allegros. Maybe he was slightly too
close to the microphones – and in passing
it’s a shame the movements weren’t separately
banded. Maybe this kind of playing better
suits the ascetic temper of our times
in its leanness and relative detachment.
His Kreisler-Beethoven isn’t very exultant
though it is good to hear the unfamiliar
March. His Fibich is not simply tonally
reserved it’s positively deadpan and
an indication of why Kremer can hardly
be considered at all as an exponent
of any Romantic repertoire.
His Dinicu is technically
fine but has no verve. The chosen Paganini
suits his panache-resistant musicianship
rather better; there’s nothing intrinsically
captivating about it violinistically.
His Tchaikovsky Mélodie is neat
and tidy and it’s certainly welcome
to hear the Russian repertoire in his
hands – he even utilises some piquant
finger position changes and adds a dash
of colour. The Chandoschkin is, pace
the sleevenote, for solo violin – and
well sustained.
Documentation is to
the point; the English translation needs
work. The DSD (Direct Stream Digital)
transfer, so conspicuously successful
in the Shafran series works well again
here; access to the master tapes is
a huge advantage and Aulos has capitalised
on it very well indeed. Kremer has many
admirers of course and they will welcome
the chance to track him to his discographic
lair and encounter his youthful self.
Jonathan Woolf