Nilla Pierrou is a Swedish violinist who was born in the village
of Hofors, and made her debut with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic
at the age of 14. She studied with the eminent Otto Kyndel (who
made some recordings on 78), won awards, continuing her studies
in Lucerne where she made her first LP, which was of Peterson-Berger’s
Violin Concerto (Phono-Suecia PSCD95). She was 20. Flattering
offers followed, including one to assume the leader’s position
with the Swedish Radio Symphony but, worried over her imperfect
bowing arm, she preferred to pursue further studies with the
Hungarian fiddler André Gertler in Brussels. He seems to have
remodelled both her technique and her musical outlook in general.
Some years later she even joined the quartet he set up, the
last performing venture of his distinguished career. She later
moved to the United States, playing chamber music and teaching
before, in 2003 or 2005 (the notes are inconsistent on the point),
she returned to her native Sweden. A broken wrist has now ended
her performing career but she continues to teach.
This brief summary can only scratch the surface of a musician’s
life, but fortunately there is documentary evidence in the form
of three CDs, recorded over two decades from a variety of sources,
and we can listen to her playing in repertoire both familiar
and, fortunately, unfamiliar. She has sought out new works and
that’s just one of the consistent pleasures to be found in this
box.
The first disc starts with Hubay’s Third Violin Concerto, a
recording of which some may have come across fairly recently
on Hyperion. Like many things, this is a live performance and
it certainly does justice to the work – the harp is forward
and well caught, the aerial lightness of the Scherzo is realised
and so too the beautiful legato of the slow movement. Nor should
one overlook Pierrou’s playing of the tricky fourth movement
cadenza. We have a segment from Lille Bror Söderlundh’s Concerto
– and his friend, Seth Karlsson, can be heard in a 1985 radio
interview (in Swedish) explaining the circumstances of this
addition to the concerto, a brief Interlude – added because
the concerto was too short. We hear the Interlude only, with
piano accompaniment. It’s quietly contemplative. Of more significance
is Willem Kersters’s Concerto, which is dedicated to Pierrou.
Written in 1989, it’s a late work but very approachable, with
some lovely high-lying solo writing over a static bass line,
a musing and very long cadenza; rarefied, expressive, hard-won,
and a fine discovery.
The second disc moves away from concerto repertoire to reveal
her strengths as a sonata player. We have an engaging Haydn
sonata, and Grieg’s Third Sonata – a little too metrical at
points, and occasionally shaky in the finale but with well varied
vibrato usage. Webern’s Four Pieces are subtly done
and her take on Janácek’s sonata is interesting; a very romantically
phrased Ballada, for one thing, and a very non-Moravian
sounding Allegretto. She has a much stronger grip,
idiomatically, on Bartók as one might have predicted given her
studies with Gertler, one of the composer’s greatest interpreters.
We hear the Adagio from the First Sonata.
The final disc is, again, a chamber one. Bartók is here once
more, in the shape of an excellent First Rhapsody, and the Bartók-Gertler
Sonatina, which is played with just the right sense of imagination
and rhythm. Her Kodály Adagio, a Grumiaux favourite,
is nobly played, whilst the great Duo for violin and cello sees
her teamed with Roel Dieltiens for an intense and satisfying
performance. The two also perform Victor Legley’s Duo. Legley
(1915-94) was a Belgian composer - a string player and orchestral
musician before devoting his time to writing music full-time.
His Duo is rather neo-classical, very communicative and with
a flighty fugal exchange in the finale that brings a smile to
one’s face. She doesn’t over-bow in Bloch’s Nigun and
she is a natural for the two Tor Aulin pieces.
Sound quality naturally varies from location to location, and
broadcast to broadcast. It’s never less than perfectly acceptable
and often a great deal more. There is a 32 page Swedish/English
booklet with plenty of information and photographs, and all
the accompanists – I apologise for skirting round them in this
review – are given potted biographies. I enjoyed this box, and
its contents reflect well on an honest and broadminded musician.
Jonathan Woolf
See also review by Göran
Forsling (March 2012 Recording of the Month)
Track listing
CD 1
Jenö HUBAY (1858-1937)
Violin Concerto No.3 in G minor Op.99 (1906-07) [29:34]
Interview with Seth Karlsson recorded in 1985 [3:41]
Lille Bror SÖDERLUNDH (1912-1957)
Violin Concerto – II. Intermedio a parte (1954) [2:45]
Willem KERSTERS (1929-1998)
Violin Concerto Op.86 (1989) [38:20]
CD 2
Joseph HAYDN (1732-1809)
Violin Sonata in F major [18:55]
Edvard GRIEG (1843-1907)
Violin Sonata No.3 in C minor Op.45 (1886-87) [22:35]
Anton WEBERN (1883-1945)
Four Pieces Op.7 (1910-22) [5:30]
Leoš JANÁCEK
(1854-1928)
Violin Sonata (1914-15 rev 1921) [19:10]
Béla BARTÓK (1881-1945)
Violin Sonata No.1 BB84 – ii Adagio (1921) [11:24]
CD 3
Béla BARTÓK (1881-1945)
Rhapsody No.1 for violin and piano BB94a (1928) [10:09]
Eugčne
YSAŸE (1858-1931)
Reve d’enfant Op.14 [4:52]
Victor LEGLEY (1915-1994)
Duo for violin and cello Op.101 [9:40]
Ernest BLOCH (1880-19 59)
Baal Shem – Nigun (1923) [6:57]
Tor AULIN (1866-1914)
Barcarole Op.16 (1906) [5:00]
Vaggsĺng (1899) [3:43]
Béla BARTÓK (1881-1945)
Sonatina for violin and piano BB102 ed. André Gertler (1915
rev 1924) [4:46]
Zoltán KODÁLY (1882-1967)
Adagio for violin and piano (1905) [7:10]
Duo for violin and cello Op.7 (1914) [25:17]
Nilla Pierrou (violin) with