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Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
CD 1
Violin Sonata No.1 in G, op.78 (1879) [24:54]
Violin Sonata No.2 in A, op.100 (1886) [19:09]
Violin Sonata No.3 in D minor, op.108 (1888) [20:46] CD 2
Viola Sonata No.1 in F minor, op.120/1 (1894) [20:58]
Viola Sonata No.2 in E flat op.120/2 (1894) [18:12]
Oscar Shumsky (violin and viola)
Leonid Hambro (piano)
rec. details not given (c1991) DDD
reissued from the MusicMasters catalogue
NIMBUS NI 2513/4 [64:47 + 39:07]
Shumsky never recorded the Brahms Violin Concerto commercially,
though TV film exists of his performance. Violin fanciers had
quivering fingers set on 'record' when he played it on
the BBC many years ago and I should know as my own calloused fingers
were poised to plunge and capture the great man in action. Some
hardy souls have uploaded their VHS copies onto YouTube. I think
it's less well known however that he set down the Violin sonatas
and Viola sonatas for MusicMasters in 1991 and these performances
have now been revivified by Nimbus.
It was always a perplexing matter as to why Shumsky was one of
that rare breed who, once he had made his belated and feted reappearance
on the international scene, was so seldom asked back by orchestras.
I understand that his tart and abrasive manner may have had something
to do with it, but playing of his exalted level comes very seldom
in one's listening experience. Maybe he was out of kilter
with some elements of the public. I remember hearing his American
colleague Aaron Rosand at his last Wigmore Hall appearance in
London. The stranger sitting next to me turned at the interval
and asked what I thought of the violinist so I gave him a more
than favourable summary. The man's brow darkened. 'I don't
like his tone or his playing', he said and turned away, and
that was that. Perhaps he'd have preferred Midori.
Not much of which has anything to do with these late, patrician
readings. Nobility courses through the veins of Op.108 - tone
and phrasing - and even at 74 Shumsky gives younger players a
master class in rubato usage and phraseology. His near contemporary
Leonid Hambro demarcates the left hand accents of the slow movement
punctiliously whilst Shumsky gauges the rise and fall of the lyric
line with great wisdom, reserving greatest weight of tone and
bow pressure for the optimum time. Both men catch the gutsy wit
of the Scherzo and stake out the finale's geography with practised
assurance. It's true that Shumsky's intonation is not
infallible and his tone can become pinched from time to time but
these are minor glitches amongst the panorama that unfolds.
The G major and A major share these virtues and abundance and
also, it's true, some technical failings as well already alluded
to as well as a lack of tonal body. Ensemble however is excellent,
the double stopping in the Adagio of Op.78 on the money, whilst
the piano's bass tolling is memorably insisted upon by Hambro.
In the lyrically settled Op.100 things are first class, the lyric
warmth conveyed with nobility but no hint of glutinous over vibration,
albeit the slowing vibrato makes itself heard most especially
in the sonata's finale where tone colours could be better
varied.
Some may not know that Shumsky played the viola - though his son
Eric does - but as he shows here he most certainly did. He was
once an august member of William Primrose's quartet and I
think it's to that great Scotsman that we can best ascribe
the strongest influence on his viola playing. The tempi are remarkably
similar - Primrose recorded I with Kapell and II with Gerald Moore
and both with Firkušný. If you admire, say, Rivka
Golani's playing (with Bogino, Conifer CDCF199) you will find
Shumsky almost brusque in comparison. But this kind of 'alto'
toned viola playing aligns well with Primrose's own, albeit
the myriad colours and virtuosic panache of Primrose are a very
different thing from Shumsky's own playing, which can sound
rather more one dimensional. But it does share that same tensile-expressive
curvature, that unsentimental affection, the subtlety of metrics
and rubati.
This is one for Shumsky's admirers. It's not without its
faults but it enshrines playing of rapt wisdom and assurance,
and fortunately captures both Shumsky and his excellent colleague
Hambro well.
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