Beethoven’s complete
Violin Sonatas in SACD sound,
mmmm, that
is an enticing prospect, and with musicians of fine
pedigree this has to be a release worth considering.
You wouldn’t know it from most of the recordings, but these
are in fact live performances of three concerts at the Théâtre
National de Marseille la Crièe. I can’t imagine there
wasn’t a certain amount of post-concert ‘tidying up’, but
these certainly don’t sound heavily edited, and the audiences are
exceptionally well behaved. There are a few moments of minor restlessness
such as at the start of the
Adagio of the
Sonata No. 3, but
these are of little account even on repeated listening.
Applause
appears at the end of the recitals, but is highly truncated. My suggestion
would be either to leave it out altogether or let it run just a little
longer, with a more extended fade-out. The theater acoustic is fairly dry
though by no means uncomfortably so, and recording places the violin to the
left and the piano to the right, so with headphones you have the impression
of sitting in between the musicians. This creates a nice conversational vibe
between the players, even though it’s not particularly realistic as a
concert perspective.
The performances are very good musically, with keenly observed
dynamics, plenty of wit in lighter movements such as the
Rondo of the
Sonata No. 1, beautiful expression in movements such as the
Adagio
cantabile of
Sonata No. 7, and plenty of the sunshine and
darkness contrasts which are all part of a series of pieces which always
seem to have something of the biographical in them.
Of the complete Beethoven
Violin Sonatas available, you may
have been tempted by Anne-Sophie Mutter and Lambert Orkis, which is also
available on SACD as well as being a DVD set from Deutsche Grammophon. This
is a terrific and highly rewarding set, though Mutter has a tendency to play
the diva even when the violin has a secondary role to the piano, which can
get up your nose after a while. Caroline Sageman is less showy all-round,
which means less drama and deep digging in some of the crucial moments, but
a better blend when Beethoven is painting with thinner brushstrokes or has
less idea what to do with the violin than with the piano part. Equally
dramatic and in a big acoustic are Renaud Capuçon and Frank Braley on
Virgin Classics (see
review), and though the violin gets the better deal
from the recorded balance, sounding closer in terms of presence than the
piano, this is musically a leading prospect. Michael Cookson’s review
also includes a roundup of some classic recordings in his penultimate
paragraph, and as you can see there are plenty of choices around.
What all this implies is that you will find more exciting recordings
dotted around the place - if greater excitement is what you are looking for
that is - and not always in the context of complete sets. I’ve just
been having a listen to the
Kreutzer sonata in the EMI Classics
Martha Argerich Edition ‘Chamber Music’ (see
review), and with that edge-of-the-seat verve you get
with such magnificent performances there is much to be said for shopping
around when it comes to favourite pieces. While Galoustov/Sageman are very
good you don’t have quite the same inspired lift from that first
movement
Presto, but this gives rise to a problem in this Lyrinx set
which I haven’t mentioned until now.
The recordings on disc one are perfectly fine, but as we enter the
dynamic peaks of the
Spring sonata on disc 2 something worrying
starts to emerge. Take that cadence at 3:20 and you will hear what I mean.
This sounds like peak level distortion. Try as I might, I couldn’t
make it go away, listening through speakers rather than headphones, changing
CD players and operating through standard stereo rather than the SACD
multi-channel layer. Take that first movement of the
Kreutzer sonata
on disc 3 as another example and have a listen to the peaks in the piano
from 3:14 in. While not all of the sonatas are affected, I’m afraid as
it stands these blemishes discount this Lyrinx set from any kind of
recommendation, which is a great shame since the performances are highly
respectable and a realistic slightly lower-key alternative to some of the
more extravagantly performed sets which have been mentioned. I have tried to
contact someone for comment from the label. A message was forwarded to the
artistic director/founder of the label via the Lyrinx Facebook page, but I
never received an answer. I will happily withdraw these observations and
revise this review if it turns out to be a problem with certain batch of
pressings, but I fear this is an artifact of the original engineering and
therefore disastrously permanent.
Dominy Clements
[3 CDs: 79:57 + 76:44 + 79:57]
