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Stravinsky, Bartók & Martinů: Violin Works (BIS)
★★★★☆
Stravinsky is off-menu as of late. Other than the ballet music, the composer as soon as thought to be the best of his century has been discarded by orchestras, who not contemplate him a field workplace draw. The validity of that judgment is likely to be contested however not the proof: when did you final hear a Symphony in C?
The violin concerto in D of 1931, commissioned by the US virtuoso Samuel Dushkin, is among the many extra ingenious scores of Stravinsky’s neoclassical interval, revealing a great deal of enter by Dushkin. The German violinist Frank Peter Zimmerman, partnered by the Bamberg Symphony and Jakub Hrusa, realigns it wistfully as a late-romantic work, stuffed with craving for misplaced youth, homeland and confidence. The second aria, performed softly, has an aching high quality all its personal. That is by some margin essentially the most considerate interpretation I’ve heard in years, additionally essentially the most likeable.
Bartok’s two violin rhapsodies, dated 1928, are frisky, folksy dances for Balkan ft: what’s to not like? Bohuslav Martinu’s Suite concertante of 1944 is one in all his least-played works and I’m thrilled to make its acquaintance. Hrusa brings out Bamberg’s Bohemian DNA — the orchestra was based by post-Conflict Czech refugees — and Zimmerman offers it full virtuoso gross sales method. Martinu dances just like the satan himself and desires like Joseph in Egypt.
How do such masterpieces fall by the wayside? Why gained’t orchestras look past the tip of a librarian’s nostril? Uncommonly as of late, the BIS booklet notes (by Rebecca Schmid) are informative and a pleasure to learn.
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Norman Lebrecht is without doubt one of the most widely-read commentators on music, tradition and cultural politics. He’s an everyday presenter on BBC Radio 3 and a contributor to the Wall Road Journal, Bloomberg, Standpoint, Sinfini and different publications. His weblog, Slipped Disc, is among the many most generally learn cultural websites on-line, breaking unique tales and campaigning towards human abuse and acts of injustice within the cultural industries.
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