Leoš JANÁCEK (1854-1928)
Violin Sonata, JW V11/7 (1914, rev. 1921) [17:29]
György KURTÁG (b.1926)
Doina, from Játékok, Volume VI (1973-) [2:28]
The Carenza Jig, from Signs, Games and Messages (1961-) [0:45]
Tre Pezzi, for violin and piano, Op.14e (1979) [5:31]
Fundamentals No.2, from Játékok, Volume VI (1973-) [0:30]
In memoriam Blum Tamás, from Signs, Games and Messages (1961-) [3:08]
Like the flowers of the field ... from Játékok, Volume V (1973-) [1:52]
Postcard to Anna Keller, from Signs, Games and Messages (1961-) [0:30]
A Hungarian Lesson for Foreigners, from Játékok, Volume VI (1973-) [0:19]
Fanfare to Judit Maros’ wedding, from Játékok, Volume V (1973-) [0:46]
Les Adieux (‘in Janáček’s Manier’), from Játékok, Volume VI (1973-) [2:05]
In Nomine – all’ongherese, from Signs, Games and Messages (1961-) [4:51]
Béla BARTÓK (1881-1945)
Violin Sonata No.1, Sz.75 (1921) [35:14]
Jennifer Koh (violin)
Shai Wosner (piano)
rec. April and October 2012, American Academy of Arts and Letters, NYC
ÇEDILLE RECORDS CDR 90000 143 [76:15]
Another month, another Janáček Violin Sonata. That can’t
be so but it’s the case that two such recordings have appeared for
me almost simultaneously. Midori’s was in the context of a triptych
of sonatas including Bloch’s Second and Shostakovich’s. Jennifer
Koh and Shai Wosner instead follow a deliberately obscure path, tracing
Bartók’s First Sonata and adding a series of works by Kurtág,
largely culled from two ongoing series, the multi-volume Játékok,
and Signs, Games and Messages, which he began in 1961.
In any case the more performances of the Janáček, the better,
the more so when they offer such differing approaches. Midori’s
was a definably centrist kind of performance but Koh’s is more extreme.
She tends to smear her tone – quite a deliberate expressive ploy
- but by doing it so early tends to rob subsequent incidents of their
incremental power. This is not an easy work to bring off consistently
well, as the Ballada seems often to inhabit a different world
if one is not careful. Koh (and Wosner) just about skirt this danger but
she cedes architectural questions to Midori, and neither really keeps
pace with the classic Suk/Panenka recording where the movement’s
proportions are outstanding and where Suk reserves his smokiest tone for
those salient moments of the slow movement that most require it.
Bartók’s First Sonata is rather better all round though even
here she can press things hard. That relates not so much to tempi as to
tone. She brings a lot of colour and some roughness to her tone and this
militancy sometimes renders the sonata more vertical than horizontal.
Set against that, the slow movement’s opening fiddle soliloquy and
piano chording are alike excellent and the abrasive, resinous drive generated
in the finale – which some may find excessive – is, at least,
a positive response to the vitality of the music. The Kurtág pieces
offer epigrammatic zest and music of sighs and airy charm. Some of these
brief pieces are laments, tersely searing (In memoriam Blum Tamás)
whilst others, such as A Hungarian Lesson for Foreigners offer
Kurtágian drollery in 19 seconds. The Three Pieces for
violin and piano date from 1979 and are deft incisive miniatures, with
plenty of rhythmic vitality – a March theme is especially vibrant.
Doina, a piano miniature, offers a cimbalom sound world. Both
Koh and Wosner play these pieces with a beautiful sense of characterisation.
Indeed they play everything with fiery commitment. If that’s what
you want from the two principal works then the first-class recording won’t
exactly come as a disappointment.
Jonathan Woolf
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