MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger


REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
CD: Crotchet
Download: Classicsonline


Charles-Auguste de BÉRIOT (1802-1870)
Solo Violin Music – Volume 1
Twelve Scènes ou Caprices pour le violon Op.109 [37:44]
Nine Studies [20:45]
Prélude ou Improvisation Op.Posth. [9:25]
Bella Hristova (violin)
rec. St John Chrysostom Church, Newmarket, Ontario, 12-15 February 2009
NAXOS 8.572267 [68:02]
Experience Classicsonline


Having been less than thoroughly enthused by the recent Naxos disc of de Bériot two-violin duets (see review) it was with a certain degree of resignation that I received this disc – listed as volume 1 of the complete solo violin music. Add to that an unknown violinist - albeit a winner of an international competition - and an uninspiring cover and you can understand that my expectations were low. What a pleasure then to report that this disc is an absolute winner; well, except for the cover art!

Charles-Auguste de Bériot was a Belgium violinist/composer who was instrumental in founding the Belgian violin school which flourished in the later part of the 19th Century. His compositional legacy has been deemed less significant than his pedagogical one. These discs from Naxos are really the first systematic re-evaluation of his work as a composer. His compositional gifts are clearly an encyclopedic knowledge of the violin allied with a gift for lyrical melodic lines. His weaknesses are a less than convincing command of form – hence the 3 Duo Concertantes on the disc mentioned above labour under a limited and rather predictable three movement form coupled with less than memorable thematic material. For any composer in the first half of the 19th Century composing for a solo violin the two great works that comprise the Bach Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin (BWV1001–1006) and the Paganini 24 Caprices for solo violin loom large. The first published edition of the Bach dates from 1802 (the year of de Bériot’s birth) and the Paganini from 1805-09. De Bériot’s real skill with his 12 Scènes ou Caprices pour le violon Op.109 is that he neither tries to emulate nor is daunted by either of these monolithic predecessors. Instead he plays to his own strengths outlined above and produces works of enormous charm, musicality and real worth. The key lies in the fact that each of the Scènes are given an illustrative title which allows de Bériot to follow his natural early romantic muse as well as focusing on one particular technical aspect of violin technique. Hence the very first Scène is entitled La Séparation. This starts in melancholy octaves which are then thematically repeated but with richer harmonies before a central agitato section in almost continuous double stopping. It’s very easy to imagine a narrative for this piece to fit the music as described. Jumping forward the fifth Caprice is entitled La Fougue which translates as The Spirit/The Fire. It’s a 3 minute cascade of complex passage-work and fiendishly difficult chordal writing. The musical diversity across the thirty eight minutes of these pieces is a delight.

None of which would count for much if they were not played with the extraordinary virtuosity and musical maturity of Bella Hristova. Young violinists with stainless-steel techniques seem to be two-a-penny currently. Naxos have issued debut discs by several but to my ear remarkable technical address all too often comes in harness with musical anonymity. Not so here – the 24 year old Hristova combines jaw-dropping technical prowess with real style. To my mind this is old-fashioned playing in the very best sense. In track 1 just listen at 1:02 where she bends the chord – it’s a nuance but for her a natural and effective one. Or else track 8, Saltarella only 13 seconds in where she tosses off a little run of thirds with such ease and grace. I could go on and on about things that are hard on the violin that she makes sound easy. Here, however,  is one general thought: in essence the violin is a linear instrument – it plays lyrical lines better than vertical harmonies. So when Bach writes his fugues or the Chaconne the greatest problem is to produce even tone across all of the chords or inner part-writing. De Bériot writes horizontally and vertically as well and Hristova’s single greatest achievement is the way she is able to tease out the horizontal lines implied in the vertical writing. This is coupled to playing that evinces a glorious range of tone, dynamic and colour. A real feature is fantastic bow-to-string contact; it is always said that great players are truly defined by their bow control not their left hand dexterity.

The liner-notes say that she plays on a 1655 Nicolò Amati violin that used to belong to Louis Krasner – the greatest compliment I can pay her is that she does her instrument and its heritage proud. If you dipped into any of these pieces I cannot imagine any listener being anything but thrilled by the quality of the music-making here. One little mystery, I really enjoyed the engineering of this disc – the violin well placed in a generous acoustic with plenty of detail and instrumental character audible. Yet this is the same location as for the previous duo disc where I found the acoustic positively unhelpful.

After the sheer thrill of discovery of the Caprices the Nine Studies that follow are musically more modest but to be fair that is implied by the title. Each focuses more specifically on one aspect of violin technique and I’m sure their function was primarily pedagogical. But in Hristova’s hands they transcend this potential limitation and become works of some stature. Again her ability to “layer” the music bringing out individual strands is exceptional. This well planned programme is completed by the dramatic Prélude ou Improvisation Op.Posth. At some nine and a half minutes long this is by far the longest individual movement on the disc. I love the freedom and truly improvisatory way in which Hristova plays this. I cannot stress too strongly her intuitive musicality – there is a “rightness” to all her choices that I find quite utterly compelling. If I have missed other discs by her I will be seeking them out immediately; if this is her debut disc it is hugely auspicious. This is easily the best violin playing of this kind of repertoire I have heard in a very long time. I hope Naxos will encourage her to record the continuing volumes of this repertoire and much - or anything frankly! - beside.

Exceptional violin playing reviving a major work of the solo violin repertoire.

Nick Barnard 

 



 

 
 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.