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 60^th 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.

Shostakovich: Symphonies 9 & 15
Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, SWR/Andrey Boreyko
Hanssler Classic 93.284
Total Time:  71:30
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

After essentially 5 massive symphonies, Shostakovich’s ninthoften comes as a bit of a surprise to those who only know the big WWIIworks.  His lesser known last symphony,the fifteenth, holds an equally unusual place in the repertoire.  But in Andrey Boreyko’s new release, thesetwo seemingly different works are paired together for the first time in whatturns out to be a revealing pairing. Both works might be said to belong more to the sardonic, neo-classicaland modern style’s of the 1920s, they are certainly infused with some of thatwit, form, and melodic construction.  Theemotional impact of the works at first might seem rather distant as well.  Yet in these performances there is moreweight given to the music that allows us to hear them a bit differently.

Every composer of symphonies feels an extra responsibilityperhaps when they arrive at their ninth work in the genre.  Shostakovich no doubt wondered about theplace of this work both within his oeuvre and life.  The piece had been requested/commissioned bythe Stalin government to celebrate the victory over Nazi Germany.  The expectation, in the wake of suchmonumental works as the seventh and eighth symphonies was that this new workwould have the same weight, aspiring to Beethovian heights.  Such expectations would be disappointed.  In fact, the whole work plays out to about25-26 minutes, shorter than whole movements from some of the previoussymphonies.  The first movement has adecidedly martial-like trumpet idea, but there is a bit of a bite to the melodyand the harmonies and accompanying orchestration seem more to deny any sort ofreal celebration.  The closely-knitsecond movement, with sinewy wind writing seems to suggest a landscapelittered, with the dead and with the destruction of the war.  The plodding movement might be perceived evenas soldiers returning home.  Not quitethe celebratory victory in this chromatically powerful music.  The appearance of a macabre circus march inthe center of the third movement “Presto” also suggests the inability to lookhard at the cost of the war itself.  Thejoyfulness of the movement might be the play of children whose innocence isperhaps shattered by reality itself as the work moves along.  In short, Shostakovich’s Ninth Symphony has the sort of depth that one hears in thoseearlier works, but perhaps touched by the sort of enthusiasm and youthful hopesof his very first effort.  Boreyko’sapproach is to go at the heart of this piece. He does not treat it as parody or satire, but as a serious reflection onwhat Shostakovich’s views were as the war came to an end.   By doing this the connection to thoseprevious works becomes quite clear. Rather than being easily dismissed as an unworthy symphony, theperformance here allows for a greater insight into its place withinShostakovich’s life and work.  Afterhearing this new recording you will feel as if you head has been in the sand upuntil now with most previous interpretations. 

Such a thought certainly follows into the performance of theFifteenth Symphony (1971).  Interestingly set in a key a tritone apartfrom the ninth.  (The ninth is in“Eb-Major” the fifteenth in “A Major”.)  Atfirst hearing, this particular symphony may feel a bit out of place aswell.  One certainly must know theirmusic history well to get at the heart of the piece.  The music is practically a catalogue ofShostakovich’s own musical life with quotes from musical literature, orapproaches, certainly perceived as “decadent” Western music.  The opening melodic idea bears someresemblance to a theme from the 9^th and even the trumpet calls,including the melody from Rossini’s WilliamTell, announce that something different is happening here.  The appearance of these various quotes, bothfrom Shostakovich’s own work and the likes of Bach, Beethoven, Schoenberg, andWagner, point to a more reflective testament of the composer’s place within thehistory of music.  The choices themselveshave implications lost on the casual listener as the works chosen includepieces that were significant signposts in Soviet life under Stalin.  There is also that sense of needing tosuggest what might have been sacrificed by the art purged before WWII and thefollowing suppressions.  Quotes from the14^th symphony and even the 7^th, the latter set againstthe death motif from Wagner’s Die Walkurecreate an atmosphere that is biographical both for the composer and the Sovietpeople.  The Fifteenth Symphony is a work that requires some dedication to themusic of Shostakovich.  Awareness ofprior work certainly will lead to a deeper appreciation that eschews the sensethat this is a pastiche.  One certainlycan enjoy the wit, thematic quotes, and new dressing in the work on its ownwithout concerning themselves with the context of the piece.  At roughly 44 minutes, it certainly has aweightier feel.

One of the great assets of this new Hanssler release iscertainly the recording of the orchestra itself.  The detail and balance across the ensemble issimply amazing.  Whether a wind solo or abrass statement, one hears these perfectly in the sound image allowing to heareverything without needing to constantly shift volume control to pick outsofter sections.  The solos are quitebeautifully performed and you can hear the way the whole ensemble responds tothe interpretation of articulation.  The“Largo” of the Ninth Symphony isperhaps one of the clearest places to actually hear this as the crisp attacksof the first movement become translated into a new melodic line in bassoonmatched in strings.  Tempos are equallywell thought out with the slower tempos perhaps being just a tad slower thanmost recorded versions (though really imperceptibly so).  There are many highlights worth revisiting inthis new release which was recorded live (though one cannot tell until theappreciative applause at the end of the final movements).

Boreyko’s first Shostakovich recording was of the intense Fourth Symphony, itself rarelyperformed.  If he intends to survey theentire symphonic cycle, he is intriguingly tackling those works that are worthrethinking historically both within the development of music during the Sovietperiod and the growing understanding of Shostakovich’s place and life.  The performances are perfect in their shapingof drama and you will likely be hard pressed to find better performances ofeither of these works.  Hisinterpretation may even reveal new depths to pieces often quickly dismissed.