Comparison Recordings:
Lydia Mordkovich Chandos CHAN 8599
Mateja Marinkovic Collins Classics 13762
These wonderful works,
ignored for so long, now seem to have
become violinistic war-horses. Ysaÿe
accomplishes an impossible task, writing
violin music which is almost independent
of any period or place. This is not
so much modern music or baroque music
or romantic music, as it is all of these
— it is violin music. One can
imagine Corelli or Biber enjoying playing
these works as well as Paganini or Heifetz.
To emphasise that, the composer has
dedicated each one to a violinist friend
of his as if to say, "This is music
just for us."
Mathieu Crickboom (1871-1947)
was a student of Ysaÿe’s who played
in the Ysaÿe quartet, later founding
his own quartet with Josep Rocabruna
as the second violin, Rafael Gálvez
on the viola, and Pablo Casals, cello;
Enrique Granados joined them when they
played chamber music with piano. Manuel
Quiroga (1892-1961) was compared to
Sarasate in his interest and ability
to project violin music with a Latin
flavour.
Violinists who can
play this music are rare enough, and
to try to rank these three performances
in order of quality is all but impossible.
No two virtuosi will play them the same
way, with the enormous variety of shifting
moods and styles. But if held at gun-point
and forced to make a choice, I would
say: Mordkovich first, then Kaler second
by the thinnest of margins, then Marinkovic.
But that opinion would not stand up
to cross-examination, based as it is
only upon very subjective feelings of
the relative comfort and assurance in
the playing. If you buy this disk you
will certainly not regret it if later
you should hear the Mordkovich recording.
I will always associate
these sonatas with my dear, generous,
and brilliantly talented friend Ronald
L. Russell. He performed the second
sonata at his final public appearance
before increasing deafness forced him
to put away his violin forever. Without
music his life meant little to him,
and he collapsed mentally, and then
physically, and died in a few years.
His performance was brilliant, but to
deepen the tragedy, as the audience
sat down to hear it, the microphone
cable was inadvertently kicked and the
recording failed.
Paul Shoemaker
Ilya Kaler (violin) 