February 25, 2013

  • Review: Shostakovich & Strauss Violin Sonatas

     

    Strauss/Shostakovich/Penderecki
    Jakub Haufa, violin; Marcin Sikorski, piano; Katarzyna Budnik-Galazka, viola
    Accord 184
    Total Time:  65:25
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

     

    Almost 100 years separate the works on this program of solo violin music.  They are performed by Jakub Haufa who has been concertmaster of the Sinfonia Varsovia and Polish Chamber Orchestra.  In the latter capacity he has recorded Vivaldi concerti with Nigel Kennedy for EMI.  This appears to be his solo debut with a rich program spanning different styles.  He is ably supported by Marcin Sikorski.

    Richard Strauss’ Violin Sonata in Eb, Op. 18 was begun in 1887 and is significant as his last essential piece of significant chamber music.  In many ways, it hearkens back to similar works from earlier in the century maintaining at times a rather charming style with less of the adventurousness one would come to expect.  As such it marks the arrival point and accomplishment of the young budding composer announcing his assuredness to the musical world.  It is a relatively early work and was written out of his passion for the woman whom he would wed, Pauline de Anha.  The first movement certainly bears out some of this ardor with an almost symphonic sense between the piano and violin that moves through sonata-allegro form rather complexly.  The second movement has a Schubertian quality in its lyricism and later darker passages.  Sometimes the music feels almost improvisational in nature with the piano providing little flourishing arpeggios and tempos that ebb and flow beautifully.  The finale perhaps has its own imagery of union and partnership as it moves into its final bars as well.  Haufa’s performance here meets the demands of the shifts in tone from heroic to romantic rather well with a richness that sometimes has a slight edge.  His central movement performance is rather exquisite.

    The central work in the program comes almost a half century later.  Shostakovich’s work, unlike the Strauss, was completed towards the end of his life in 1968 and has a rather unusual providence.  In 1967, the composer had presented the great violinist David Oistrakh the gift of his Second Violin Concerto as a 60th birthday present.  Unfortunately, he was a year too soon and Shostakovich then felt obliged to offer up this sonata the following year.  Of course, there may have been a hidden reason for this “blunder” as Shostakovich’s public works tended to be more geared towards appealing to Soviet tastes whereas his chamber works are often quite personal affairs.  Regardless, the sonata is an attempt to use 12-tone technique though in a rather unique way.  From the beginning of the first movement, the row is presented as is its inversion, but then Shostakovich begins to treat this idea in a more classical fashion of variation and development.  Having followed Schoenberg’s technique of serialism would have been butting up against Soviet ideology so in some respects, the work begins with a bit of a thumbing of sorts.  The central movement features some of the sardonic humor that makes the composer’s work so interesting at times as things spiral out seemingly out of control.  The final movement brings back some of the ideas that appeared tossed off earlier in the work lending the entire piece a cyclic quality as it moves to its unusually quiet conclusion.  This is a serious piece that certainly encourages deeper exploration over time to mine the wealth of thematic transformation that occurs in these pages.  The sonata is a fascinating work of great emotional depth and with an intensity captured well in this performance. 

    As a sort of encore, Haufa has chosen the brief, yet beautifully moving, Ciaccona by Penderecki composed as part of the multi-movement Polish Requiem which the composer worked on over several decades.  The piece bears a memoriam for Pope John Paul II.  It is the only purely instrumental section of the piece originally feeling like an interlude.  This particular version for violin and viola was completed in 2009 and makes its debut here.

    For those interested in the Shostakovich, they need not hesitate to add this disc to their collection.  The three works are all well-performed and together make for a fine varied program that should hold up to repeated listening.  Haufa’s playing sometimes may feel a bit raw in the close recording here but this lends the performance a sort of presence and immediacy that adds to the excitement.