Carl Maria von WEBER (1786-1826)
Violin Sonatas Nos. 1-6, Op. 10, J99-104 (1810) [43:47]
Arnold Steinhardt (violin), Seymour Lipkin (piano)
rec. 27 August 1995, Curtis Institute of Music
BIDDULPH 85010-2 [43:47]
Curtis Institute features prominently in Arnold Steinhardt (b.1937) and Seymour Lipkin’s musical lives. Though he had earlier studied with that arch romantic, Toscha Seidel, the violinist studied at Curtis with Ivan Galamian whilst Lipkin (1927-2015) studied with David Saperton, Rudolf Serkin and Mieczyslaw Horszowski. Their later careers were distinguished, Steinhardt being Josef Gingold’s desk partner in George Szell’s Cleveland Orchestra before going on to lasting fame as first violinist of the Guarneri Quartet. Lipkin was a concert and chamber player and many a string admirer will know of his association with William Primrose, Oscar Shumsky and many others.
Their collaboration on disc is possibly best remembered in their Newport Classics survey of Schubert’s complete works for violin and piano but the Curtis affiliation is germane to this new release as it was recorded there back in August 1995. Both had enjoyed successful teaching careers at the institute. There’s certain collegiate feel in selecting the Weber Sonatas, which are seldom recorded en bloc, as indeed there was when they selected the Schubert works, which are largely modest in form, technical demands, and expressive content. The first team to have recorded the set of six Weber sonatas, the Six sonates progressives of 1810, was Ruggiero Ricci and Carlo Bussotti for Decca back in 1954, though more recently others have entered the lists, prominently Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov on Harmonia Mundi who added the Piano Quartet, Op.8 with like-minded colleagues. I assume that there was nothing further available for Biddulph as there is no coupling for the Weber sonatas, leaving a short measure disc of 44 minutes.
The Steinhardt-Lipkin duo proves a highly perceptive one in this repertoire, elegant, clarity-conscious, with excellent ensemble and full recognition of the necessary give and take that Weber affords. There’s a spruce elegance to phrasing, not least in one of the best-known movements, the Romance of No.1 in F, which Kreisler famously extracted as his ‘Larghetto’ and recorded. Rondos, whether in the three or two movement sonatas – there’s an equal split – are lively and rhythmically sprung, and each movement is deftly characterised; try the opening of the Sonata in G for its lively theatrical panache. Small details count: Steinhardt varies tonal colour in the legato of the Air Russe of the Third Sonata. In the opening of the Fifth Sonata Lipkin dispatches the music Weber recycled from his opera Silvana (composed in the same year) with joyful, playful resilience. Ricci and Bussotti presented a more alluring bel canto approach in their mono LP, now reissued a couple of times, but the cleaner-limbed and obviously far more cleanly recorded Biddulph offers a contemporary – though still now 27-year-old – appeal. Faust, Melnikov and confreres offer similar virtues but add that extra work.
I don’t know the genesis of this recording or whether it was intended for release at the time or if, indeed, it did have some kind of release, however limited. Steinhardt, though, made very few solo recordings and Lipkin is the kind of underrated pianist who is always worth hearing. For their admirers this well mastered release will reinforce their cultivated partnership on disc.
Jonathan Woolf
