This is volume one
in a series entitled Musica rara
– musica famosa. In the case of
Achron this is assuredly a case of rara
because outside the specialised enthusiasms
of fiddle fanciers his name will probably
mean very little. Born not far from
Heifetz but fifteen years earlier, Achron
studied in St Petersburg with Leopold
Auer and was composing morceaux by his
twenties. One of the first recorded
instances of Achron’s association with
Heifetz came in a 1915 newspaper report
of the fourteen year old playing Achron’s
Dance Improvisation with the composer’s
brother, Isidor, later a well-known
accompanist of Heifetz’s. Achron wrote
his first and third violin concertos
for Heifetz along with numerous genre
pieces once they had both gravitated
to America. Nor did he neglect his first
love, the violin, regularly performing
– indeed he played alongside Heifetz
and Zimbalist at Auer’s 80th
birthday celebratory evening in 1925.
Achron was a small
but significant figure and these recordings
constitute a welcome opportunity to
get to grips with his music, not least
the suite, and to increase our scanty
knowledge of all but his genre work
(some recorded by Heifetz of course).
In nine movements the Suite Bizarre
lives up to its name in its ceaseless
rhythmic games (what else can one expect
of movements entitled Marche grotesque
and Grimaces?) It calls for some considerable
virtuosity, not least as regards intonation
in alt in Étincelles, the opener,
and what a nasty opener as well. One
can sample Achron’s inherent gift for
lyricism as well in the fourth movement,
Terrasses du palais or his accomplishment
in matters of tensile drive in the moto
perpetuo bustle of the strangely named
Pastorale or the finger busting demands
of the final Marche grotesque. His Pastels
were dedicated to fellow Auer student,
the patrician Efrem Zimbalist; the first
is sonorous and attractive and the second
sounds rather like updated Drdla. The
nostalgic piece written for Auer has
a charming waltz embedded into it.
Some interest will
attend to Achron’s reworking of the
Paganini Caprices – we have I believe
all that he arranged or that are still
extant. The piano part most commonly
employed at this time was David’s though
many violinists would arrange their
own skeletal part for individual use.
Achron does a number of things to change
the character of many of these Caprices
as Ingolf Turban himself relates in
the booklet notes. He changes tempo
indications and such as matters of dynamics
and the result, in view of the virtuosic
piano part, is to bring stability to
the violin and piano parts, which had
formerly been merely a question of master
and serf. So we get some explicitly
mocking piano passages in No. 13 as
the accompaniment follows crab wise
the violin line, actually drawing the
ear away from the melody line (this
can’t have been Achron’s intention,
surely) to the ingenious piano part
. Achron’s are certainly no skeletal
fill-ins, as he uses the piano to reinforce
the dramatic character of the music
(No. 16) or to insert pert little lines
and chords (No. 19) or even to utilise
some ear-catching chordal progressions,
romanticised decoration and runs in
the famous 24th.
Both musicians are
clearly enthusiastic and authoritative
exponents. Nemtsov brings acumen to
bear on the piano part whilst Turban
is notably good in the fearless higher
reaches of the fingerboard. Some fine
excavation work has gone into this well
produced CD.
Jonathan Woolf
Ingolf Turban (violin) 