American violinist Michaela Paetsch Neftel takes time off from
her rather more serious recorded undertakings of contemporary
music, Brahms, and Raff, to plough a lighter furrow with fine
accordionist Wieslaw Pipczynski.
The rationale is to advance the violin-accordion team in canonic
violin repertoire. This portable, perambulatory duo is, however,
not propounding the kind of thing one hears being peddled at
a tapas bar in downtown Seville, or indeed at pavement cafés
in Paris. It’s a lot more rectitudinous than frivolous. And
those who might have expected a bandoneon to appear presenting
Piazzolla will be disappointed — or relieved, according to taste;
I’m delighted; who needs more Piazzolla?
If you do fancy the lighter side of things then there’s enough
to be getting on with here. There is some Paganini and Sarasate
to engage the virtuosic juices. The accordion backing in the
Vitali Chaconne reminded me for a brief moment of Heifetz’s
great recording with organ accompaniment — one of the greatest
violin records ever made — but only because of the similarity
of the accompanying sonorities. The Alabiev was originally written
for coloratura soprano but survives the translation relatively
well. The Kreisler-Rimsky transcription is taken quite slowly.
Others things emerge less well. The Elgar sounds clunky for
the accordion and Neftel makes a meal of her phrasing. I didn’t
much like the Dvorák Humoresque because of the accordion,
nor the Fauré because of Neftel’s too intense vibrato. The Carmen
Fantasy could do with more dash, and Caprice Viennois
is over-stately, and far too slow; I’m not sure whether this
was her tempo decision, or dictated by the nature of the accordion
accompaniment.
So, even on relaxed critical grounds this is a bit of a hit
and miss disc. I sense things have been dragged out a bit, tempo
wise, in one or two cases and whilst the balance between the
two instruments is pretty good, I’m not sure that this recital
could be accounted a total success.
Jonathan Woolf
Track-listing
Niccolo PAGANINI (1782-1840)
La Campanella [3:45]
Cantabile for violin and piano/guitar in D major, Op. 17, MS
109 [4:58]
Edward ELGAR (1857-1934)
La Capricieuse, Op. 17 [3:53]
Edvard GRIEG (1843-1907)
Lyric Pieces Op. 12: No. 2 – Waltz [2:16]
Ethelbert NEVIN (1862-1901)
The Rosary [1:54]
Franz SCHUBERT (1797-1828)
Moments Musicaux, D780: No. 3 in F minor [2:12]
Tomaso VITALI (1663-1745)
Chaconne in G minor [4:04]
Franz HAYDN (1732-1809)
Piano Trio No. 39 in G major, Hob.XV:25: Finale 'Rondo all'ongarese'
[3:21]
Nikolai RIMSKY-KORSAKOV (1844-1908)
Scheherazade, Op. 35: Arabian Song [7:09]
Antonín DVORÁK
(1841-1904)
Humoresque in G flat major, Op. 101 No. 7 [3:16]
Theresia von PARADIS (1759-1824)
Sicilienne [3:34]
Alexander ALABIEV
(1787-1851)
The Nightingale [2:38]
Isaac ALBÉNIZ (1860-1909)
Tango [3:37]
Gabriel FAURÉ (1845-1924)
Aprčs un ręve, Op. 7 No. 1 [3:25]
Pablo de SARASATE (1844-1908)
Danza Espańola No. 3: Romanza Andaluza, Op. 22, No. 1 [5:41]
Carmen Fantasy, Op. 25 [5:40]
Fritz KREISLER (1875-1962)
Liebesleid [4:02]
Caprice Viennois, Op. 2 [5:07]
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Trinklied, WoO 109 [2:50]
Michaela Paetsch Neftel (violin) 
