RECORDINGS

RETHINKING BACH

BACH Goldberg Variations (arr. Jiménez) Jorge Jiménez (violin)

PAN CLASSICS PC 10434

A persuasive reimagining of a keyboard masterpiece

They have been transcribed for guitar, for harp, for accordion, for string trio… the list goes on. Now Bach’s Goldberg Variations, one of the greatest works ever written for keyboard, have been transcribed by Spanish violinist Jorge Jiménez for solo violin.

A crazy idea? But think how Bach in his solo string music often creates the effect of several voices through double-stops, chords and fragments of lines. After hearing a few variations I was won over by Jiménez’s skilful rethinking, the product of many years’ work.

Jiménez, internationally known as a soloist and leader of early music bands, plays with impressive definition, pure tuning and effortless technical finesse. The shining, luminous sound of his 1680 Rugeri violin is well captured by the recording.

Inevitably some variations work more naturally than others on the violin. Those full of rapid runs flow even better on violin, especially when slurred, while the famous ‘Black Pearl’ (variation 25, Adagio) grabs you instantly with the extra level of expression of which the violin is capable. Even though much of the counterpoint is lost in the canons, they still manage to convince.

Unfortunately, there are a couple of production errors in the links between variations: one when a final note is cut off too soon, while variation 28 has a slight false start on the previous track.

JANET BANKS

BIBER

Sonatae Violino Solo 1681 VILSMAYR Violin Sonata in E flat major Plamena Nikitassova (violin) Les Élémens

CPO 555 481–2 (2 CDS)

Technical flair to the fore in Baroque pyrotechnics

Charles Burney described Biber’s ‘solos’ as ‘the most difficult and fanciful’ of their time – and with good reason, because they set new benchmarks in both artistic creativity and daring virtuosity. Plamena Nikitassova interprets the eight sonatas of 1681 with intelligence, style and virtuosity, demonstrating imaginative sensibility to their dramatic musical language through dynamic contrasts and subtleties of articulation and timing. She relishes the conversational texture indicated by Biber’s two-stave presentation of the solo part in no.8. and takes the prescribed scordaturas in nos.4 and 6 in her stride, swapping her 1659 Jacob Stainer instrument for a c.1730 Sebastian Kloz in no.4. Curiously, though, all these performances appear to involve scordatura, as the clean, vibrant and resonant recordings sound approximately a semitone higher than Biber’s text.

Nikitassova shapes phrases flexibly to convey musical meaning, as in these works’ quasi-improvisatory toccata sections, and tastefully adds extempore ornamentation throughout. She gives a compelling sense of architecture to individual movements, notably the extended chaconnes which are at the core of nos.1, 3, 5 and 7, the free-flowing passacaglia of no.6, the numerous variation movements and stylised dances such as the charming gigue of no.4 and gavotte of no.6.

The menuett of no.8, however, seems uncomfortably fast.

The continuo quartet of Les Élémens accompanies sensitively, imaginatively and with a fair amount of artistic licence throughout, often adding to Biber’s score introductory preambles and sectional variants as appropriate. The collection’s makeweight, a world-premiere recording of a sonata by Vilsmayr, admirably illustrates the senior composer’s powerful influence on his pupil.

ROBIN STOWELL

HENRIËTTE BOSMANS

Violin Sonata; Arietta for violin and piano; Piano Trio Marina Solarek (violin) Miriam Lowbury (cello) Andrew Bottrill (piano)

TOCCATA CLASSICS TOCC0654

Intriguing Dutch byways hampered by issues of tuning

These are first recordings of early works by the Dutch composer Henriëtte Bosmans (1895–1952), written in a rich late-Romantic style. The 1918 Sonata opens with a full-blooded fervent theme, thrusting forward on a wave of dodgy intonation. It quickly calms down into something melancholy and thoughtful, with Solarek maintaining a quiet, passionate intensity. A dry, pecked theme opens the Non troppo presto second movement, gnomic and restless. The languid, angular Adagio flows into the wistful fugal opening of the Moderato assai finale, which remains largely contemplative before rising to a degree of grandeur at its conclusion.

After the short reflective melody of the Arietta, they are joined by cellist Miriam Lowbury for Bosmans’s Piano Trio of 1921, which has wide-ranging conversations between violin and often high cello following its turbulent opening. Lowbury neatly crafts the opening melody of the central Andante, which has at its centre a little scherzo with plenty for Bottrill to do. The last movement opens with a slow, meandering soliloquy from Solarek before bursting out into energetic jollity. These pieces are certainly worth an outing, and the artists do many good things musically, but this recording is let down by Solarek’s constantly uncertain intonation. The recorded sound is clear and balanced.

TIM HOMFRAY

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BRAHMS

Violin Concerto in D major op.77 DVOŘÁK Hussite Overture op.67. Henryk Szeryng (violin) Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra/Rafael Kubelík

ORFEO C 220081

A great Brahms interpretation returns to the catalogue

The Brahms was Henryk Szeryng’s most congenial concerto and this performance, recorded live in Vienna by Bavarian Radio on 11 June 1967, was perhaps his best realisation of it. Orfeo issued this identical programme in 2007 and it should not have lapsed from its catalogue.

After an excellent Hussite Overture from Kubelík and the orchestra, the conductor shapes Brahms’s tutti well, working up quite a storm and not relaxing too much for the lyrical theme. Szeryng’s entry is imperious, he produces lovely lyrical playing for the quieter passages, his double- and multiple-stopping is sovereign and there is a wonderful ebb and flow to the Allegro non troppo – the timing to the start of the Joachim cadenza is 16:50.

After an intense oboe solo, Szeryng is eloquent in the Adagio, phrasing with the generosity that was a notable part of his character. He sets a slower tempo than Heifetz, Busch or Huberman for the finale but avoids being sluggish or heavy; in fact he dances nicely, rhapsodises when given the chance and fiddles with élan.

Violin tone and orchestral sound are up to late 1960s standards. The booklet has been rejigged, with some different photos, but the interesting essay still makes whopping errors of omission.

TULLY POTTER

CHARM, PASSION AND ACROBATICS

CHAUSSON Pièce op.39 INGHELBRECHT Nocturne; Prélude et Salterelle; Impromptu KUNC Viola Sonata; Rapsodie Misha Galaganov (viola) John Owings (piano)

NAVONA NV6434

A trunk of viola rarities yields a musical treasure-trove

The idea for this recording was born when violist Misha Galaganov acquired a trunk of music from a colleague who had studied in Paris with the legendary Maurice Vieux. The latter was an assiduous commissioner of viola music, and two of the pieces included here were written for him: Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht’s Impromptu and Pierre Kunc’s Rapsodie. The former, from 1922, is reminiscent of the pièces de concours that were composed yearly for examinations at the Paris Conservatoire, featuring as it does tricky rhythms and unexpected turns of phrase. Of a similar hue is Inghelbrecht’s playful Prélude et Salterelle from 1907, dedicated to Vieux’s predecessor, Théophile Laforge. Both pieces are tailor-made to highlight the viola’s timbral and technical possibilities and they receive strong advocacy from Galaganov, with his dark, sinewy tone, enhanced by stylish portamento.

Pierre Kunc makes striking use of pentatonic scales in his Rapsodie from 1939, negotiated with aplomb by Galaganov, who also provides some suavely expressive playing in the piece’s slow central section. Kunc’s earlier Sonata (1921) is conceived on the largest of scales. John Owings, a proactively supportive partner throughout, comes into his own here, as does Galaganov’s facility in passagework and high-lying doublestopping. The two pieces that bookend this well-recorded CD were conceived for the cello but with a viola alternative sanctioned by their composers: Inghelbrecht’s haunting Nocturne and Chausson’s Pièce, the last work he published before his untimely death. Both pieces exude the heady atmosphere of the Parisian salon, gratefully seized upon by the two interpreters.

CARLOS MARÍA SOLARE

LIVE IN BOLOGNA

★

Music by Chopin, Lutosławski, Meyer and Szymanowski Luca Fiorentini (cello) Jakub Tchorzewski (piano)

STRADIVARIUS STR 37227

Intensity aplenty in this wide-ranging programme

Recorded live in concert at the 2014 Bologna Festival, Luca Fiorentini and Jakub Tchorzewski dispatch a highly demanding programme with impressive technical and intonational security. The relatively close miking ensures that audience noise is virtually non-existent (gently faded applause excepted), while the very occasional sniff and exhortation from Fiorentini only adds to the sense of occasion.

Szymanowski’s early op.9 Violin Sonata, in the transcription by Polish cellist Kazimierz Wiłkomirski, comes flying off the page – the finale’s imposing coda thrilling in a way that studio recordings rarely achieve. Lutosławski’s solo Sacher Variation, with its startling mood changes and colossal dynamic range, also inspires heartfelt playing from Fiorentini, whose sweeping down bows were so vehement I almost feared for his instrument at times.

Krzysztof Meyer’s accompanied 1981 Chaconne, based on the finale of Mozart’s ‘Jupiter’ Symphony, is a substantial work lasting almost a quarter of an hour. Fiorentini and Tchorzewski trace the music’s hauntingly claustrophobic narrative with great intensity. They finish with Chopin’s G minor Sonata, a work that always sounds best when the musical gloves come off, and once again they respond with high-octane passion and abandonment.

JULIAN HAYLOCK

FANTASIA DUTILLEUX

Trois Strophes sur le nom de Sacher KHACHATURIAN Sonate-Fantaisie KODÁLY Solo Sonata LIGETI Solo Sonata SØRENSEN Farewell-Fantasia Jonathan Swensen (cello)

CHAMPS HILL RECORDS CHRCD168

A young cellist lives up to his burgeoning reputation

Garlanded with young artist awards and scholarships, the Danish cellist Jonathan Swensen puts a formidably assured technique and bold, expressive temperament at the service of landmarks in the 20th-century solo repertoire (and a premiere, written for him by fellow Dane, Bent Sørensen). The studio engineering’s generous acoustic complements the big-hearted nature of his performances, which belies their thorny corners and intimidating reputations. Anyone who has Ligeti and Dutilleux marked down as ‘difficult’ modernists will find their prejudices challenged by the rich tonal bloom of his playing (on which instrument, the booklet does not say) and the extrovert, conversational brilliance of their finales.

The two fantasia pieces at the heart of the album draw from Swensen a focused cantabile line that leads the listener through their diffuse form – towards heroic fulfilment in the Khachaturian, and peaceful resignation in the Sørensen. The Kodály Sonata presents a stiffer if familiar challenge, which Swensen meets by taking his time to enjoy the slow movement’s soulful nocturne and articulate every gesture of the finale’s rough good humour. Over 75 minutes I counted not a single ugly note: an achievement in itself. There is more risk and intimacy to Emmanuelle Bertrand’s recordings of this repertoire on Harmonia Mundi, but it’s a matter of personality rather than musicianship, and I would gladly buy a ticket to see Swensen on the strength of this appealing calling card.

PETER QUANTRILL

DVOŘÁK

Eight Waltzes op.54 (arr. Kabát and the composer); String Quartet in F major op.96 ‘American’; String Quartet movement in F major Talich Quartet

LA DOLCE VITA LDV 101

A long-standing Czech quartet is reborn with a new line-up

One might wonder why we need another recording of one of Czechia’s leading quartets playing some of the mainstays of its nation’s repertoire. But this is a significant release: the first recording made since the death in 2020 of the Talich Quartet’s founder Jan Talich (who had been succeeded in the first violin seat by his son, Jan Talich Jr, in 1997), and also the first to include its latest recruit, cellist Michal Kaňka, formerly of the Pražák Quartet.

The main work, Dvořák’s ‘American’ Quartet, reveals an ensemble in fine mettle. Kaňka blends in well – you might say too well, for if there’s any criticism, it’s his seeming unwillingness to stand out, leaving the bass-line sometimes feeling sketched in rather than emphatic. But rhythms are tight across the foursome and the composer’s lyricism shines through, qualities also evident in the single movement from an unfinished F major quartet.

A further notable element of this disc is the first recording of Jiří Kabát’s string quartet arrangements of Dvořák’s Eight Waltzes, supplementing the composer’s own transcriptions of his piano originals of nos.1 and 4. The Talich players give them warm-hearted performances, attuned to their rustic rather than ballroom nature. The close recording captures every detail throughout.

MATTHEW RYE

ATRIUM

JOSEFINE OPSAHL Prism I; Gaaer ikke Soels og Maanes Vei ned under dybe Hav?; 8 Circles: Pendulum; Liquid Entity, Intimo; EVI; Town Will Change Town Will Remain; KHGR; Rauma; Prelude; Prism II Josefine Opsahl (cello and live electronics)

★

DACAPO RECORDS 8.226596

A boundary-defying recital from a remarkable Dane

Defining Josefine Opsahl is an almost impossible proposition: she’s a Danish cellist, composer and visual artist, and Atrium showcases a collection of recent music as both composer and soloist. Stylistically, the disc straddles classical, dance music, sometimes rock, even sound and noise art. Crucially, however, Opsahl uses the bewildering gallery of electronic effects at her disposal to expand and extend her own playing – to such an extent that sometimes it’s hard to tell where one stops and the other starts. She’s clearly an athletic, deeply accomplished cellist, but in the same way that she’s happy to embrace unusual effects and noise from her acoustic instrument, she also pushes her musical palette even further into electronic distortion, harmonising, looping and many other effects.

The results are deeply expressive, from the bright, buoyant minimalist figurations of 8 Circles: Pendulum (inspired by Swedish early abstract artist Hilma af Klint) to the harderedged chromaticism of Liquid Entity (inspired by Danish architect Jørn Utzon), which builds steadily to a multi-layered cello chorus. The bells of Copenhagen’s City Hall chime distantly through the opaque sonic backgrounds of Town Will Change Town Will Remain, and there’s a collision between Bachian figurations and Reichian hocketing in the somewhat introspective KHGR.

It’s a fascinating, deeply rewarding collection of pieces that are immediately likable, but with plenty of detail and depth to repay much repeated listening.

DAVID KETTLE

MENDELSSOHN

Violin Concerto in D minor; Largo and Allegro for piano and strings; Salve regina; Three Fugues; String Symphonies: no.2 in D major, no.5 in B flat major Monica Piccinini (soprano) Europa Galante/Fabio Biondi (violin)

NAÏVE V7262

A Baroque master sheds new light on a wunderkind

Teenage works such as the Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture and the Octet show how remarkably talented Mendelssohn was as a young man, but it is the very early music, including the pieces on this compelling recording from Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante, that demonstrates just how astonishing he was as a child. All these works were composed by Mendelssohn on the cusp of his teens, yet there’s nothing childlike or simplistic about this music. Rather, his mind acted like a sponge, voraciously absorbing the examples of the older music that enthused him and creating new works that demonstrated his mastery of all it had to teach him. Every one of these pieces is impeccably crafted and touchingly personal on its own terms.

The guiding spirits are audibly Mozart and early Beethoven in terms of structure and Bach in terms of contrapuntal technique. And that’s where Europa Galante and Fabio Biondi come into their own, moonlighting from their traditional habitat in the music of the Baroque and illuminating Mendelssohn’s fluency in this antique language. The use of period strings lends a softer grain than modern instruments and the recording is close enough to capture Biondi’s breaths but not to obscure the inner lines of Mendelssohn’s counterpoint. Monica Piccinini joins for a beguiling Salve regina and Paola Poncet is the fortepianist both here and in a D minor Largo and Allegro, while Biondi reveals all the vigour of the D minor Concerto. Captivating.

DAVID THREASHER

DONALD TOVEY CHAMBER MUSIC TOVEY

Sonata for two cellos in G major; Sonata for solo cello in D major op.30; Sonata for cello and piano op.4 BACH Prelude in C minor BWV999 (arr. Tovey) Alice Neary (cello) Kate Gould (cello) Gretel Dowdeswell (piano)

TOCCATA CLASSICS TOCC 0497

Persuasive performances can’t lift unmemorable music

Donald Tovey is best known for his editions of core repertoire and perceptive essays on music – aform of analysis that, despite being somewhat old-fashioned, still has much currency today. His own compositions display structural fluency and are cast largely in a Brahmsian late-Romantic language. All the music here, while pleasant, remains distinctly unmemorable,

bar the delightful arrangement of Bach’s Prelude in C minor.

The Sonata for two cellos was written for Casals and his then partner, the cellist and Latin beauty Guilhermina Suggia. Both Casals and Tovey were evidently smitten by her, and, following this rivalry, a coolness developed between the two and Casals didn’t promote the work. However, this substantial piece could usefully serve as an aid to students’ sense of ensemble; despite an enthusiastic and energetic rendition from Alice Neary and Kate Gould, it cannot be regarded as a major addition to the repertoire.

The remaining two sonatas are musically assured, if lacking in individuality, with Neary offering a committed performance of the Solo Sonata, particularly enjoying its expressive elements. But in comparison with other works for solo cello from the first half of the 20th century, this offers relatively little. Despite my misgivings, Tovey’s cello music, extensively annotated in William Melton’s excellent booklet notes, does offer an intriguing glimpse into the byways of the English tradition at the end of the 19th century, a time when it was still heavily influenced by German music.

JOANNE TALBOT

IL MONDO AL ROVESCIO: CONCERTI CON MOLTI ISTROMENTI

VIVALDI Concerto in C major RV556; Concerto in D major RV562; Flute Concerto in E minor RV432; Concerto in F major RV571; Concerto in G minor for violin and oboe RV576; Violin Concerto in A major RV344; Concerto in A minor for two oboes RV536; Concerto in F major ‘Il Proteo ò sia Il Mondo al rovescio’ RV572 Amandine Beyer (violin/ director) Gli Incogniti

HARMONIA MUNDI HMM902688

Well-picked concertos showcase the sheer range of this Venetian master

This anthology, embracing a variety of Vivaldi’s concertante works, underlines his seemingly infinite capacity for invention. It takes its name from RV572, in which the solo violin and cello parts are ‘reversed’, each being written in the other’s clef, and features period violinist Amandine Beyer as an assured principal soloist. It also provides opportunities for members of Gli Incogniti to shine, either from within the ensemble, notably the woodwinds (including clarinettists in RV556!), cellist and harpsichordist (RV572) and the exuberant natural horn players and timpanist (RV571), or in dedicated solo works.

Beyer delivers perceptive accounts which are exhilarating for their technical dexterity (especially her cadenzas for the finales of RV562 and RV556), even if the finales of RV571 and RV576 seem somewhat frenetic. She plays the lyrical slow movements with expressive subtlety and shapely phrasing, imbuing them with tasteful ornamentation and occasionally, as in the Grave of RV562, highlighting Vivaldi’s dramatic bent. She combines with oboist Neven Lesage in a powerful rendition of RV576 and directs persuasive performances of RV536, in which Lesage is joined by Gabriel Pidoux, and the brief RV432, for which flautist Manuel Granatiero improvises an enterprising second ‘movement’. The wellbalanced recording has a welcome sense of space and separation.

ROBIN STOWELL

VIVALDI

★

The Four Seasons CHEVALIER DE SAINT-GEORGES Violin Concerto no.1 in C major op.5; Violin Concerto no.9 in G major op.8 Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne/ Renaud Capuçon (violin)

ERATO 5419718972

Suave performances and a rare coupling lift this Vivaldi warhorse

Renaud Capuçon’s Four Seasons are of the straightforward variety, with little or no decoration, elaboration or dramatic mugging. The playing is excellent from everybody. ‘Spring’ is bright-eyed, replete with happily tweeting birds; the Largo is a serene, glistening evocation of a sleeping shepherd, while the final Allegro is clipped and courtly. In the dozing Allegro non molto of ‘Summer’ there are more fine birds, an energetic cuckoo and some crystalline depictions of turtle doves and goldfinch. The storm is violent indeed, and Capuçon paints an expressive, pliant picture of the weeping shepherd boy. In the fierce final Presto he bites and snarls. ‘Autumn’ abounds in pristine articulation and rhythmic vitality as people variously get merry and embark on some energetic hunting. In ‘Winter’ Capuçon and his colleagues again resist the urge to over-pictorialise. The Largo is played with simple grace; Capuçon brings a touch of rubato to his careful walking on ice, and sets off like the clappers when the violent winds arrive.

The two Chevalier de Saint-Georges concertos, suave, gracious and elegantly played, prove good companions for Vivaldi, particularly when Capuçon introduces those turtle doves and goldfinch into the slow movement of the G major. There is plenty of challenging writing, which Capuçon dispatches with unassuming virtuosity. The recording is bright and forward.

TIM HOMFRAY

THIS IS AMERICA

Works by Clarice Assad, Kinan Azmeh, Layale Chaker, Christina Courtin, Olivia Davis, Nick Dunston, Adeliia Faizullina, Rhea Fowler & Micaela Tobin, Rhiannon Giddens, Marika Hughes, Maya Miro Johnson, Bojan Louis, Dana Lyn, Angélica Negrón, Ebun Oguntola, Tomeka Reid, Terry Riley, Matana Roberts, Aeryn Santillan, Tyshawn Sorey, Anjna Swaminathan, Conrad Tao, Akshaya Tucker and Kojiro Umezaki Johnny Gandelsman (violin)

IN A CIRCLE RECORDS ICR023 (3 CDS)

A brilliantly conceived release offering a commentary on the modern world

The music world seems awash with post-lockdown solo discs reflecting on isolation and separation. This Is America from Moscow-born, Brooklyn-based (and Brooklyn Rider violinist) Johnny Gandelsman falls into that category too, but it’s also a very different – and far more ambitious – proposition.

Gandelsman has brought together no fewer than 22 new works for solo violin, each by a living US composer from right across the country, and each intended to reflect on not just the Covid pandemic, but also the murder of George Floyd and subsequent widespread protests, Californian wildfire devastation, and Trumpian political turmoil. Theresults – cast across three stuffed-full discs and a 40-page accompanying booklet – are mindbendingly diverse and frequently provocative, but always engaging, rewarding and carried off with exceptional insight and panache by Gandelsman.

And, of course, it’s impossible to do justice to them all in a short review. Suffice it to say that the music ranges from the feel-good electronic soundscapes of Clarice Assad’s consoling, oxygen-inspired O to the far grittier, more uncompromising microtonal shiftings of Tyshawn Sorey’s For Courtney Bryan, by way of a virtual pop song (Marika Hughes’s With Love from J) and a bitter electronic annihilation of an American hymn on Rhea Fowler and Micaela Tobin’s 6 January insurrection-inspired A City Upon a Hill? Running through all the pieces is Gandelsman’s strongly defined, fiercely committed playing, and his inquisitive, perceptive musical personality, here lithe and lyrical, there harsh and raucous. Not just a compelling compilation of music, This Is America is also a crucial document of our recent turbulent, imperilled times. 

DAVID KETTLE

APPASSIONALTO

SCHUMANN Märchenbilder op.113 VIEUXTEMPS Élégie op.30 BRIDGE Pensiero; Allegro appassionato FALLA Seven Spanish Popular Songs (arr. Sabbah) Marc Sabbah (viola) Eliane Reyes (piano)

PROSPERO PROSP0045

Intensity and conviction set this duo apart

‘Not another Märchenbilder!’, was my first reaction when this CD landed on my doormat. About ten seconds into the piece, however, any such thoughts vanished. Marc Sabbah – born in New York, based in Belgium – plays the opening phrases with compelling, almost unbearable intensity. He and his piano partner are on the same wavelength, realising Schumann’s myriad instructions and embellishments with absolute naturalness. The horn-call effects in the second movement resound triumphantly, and the rushing triplets in the third bounce obsessively, before peace is achieved with the soothing C-string sounds of the final lullaby.

Sabbah and Reyes build up Vieuxtemps’s Élégie to a tremendous climax, for once justifying the piece’s bombastic coda as a logical conclusion. The violist’s veiled sound in Bridge’s Pensiero contrasts effectively with the harder edge he finds for the following Allegro appassionato. As with the Vieuxtemps, Sabbah adheres here for the most part to the violist–composer’s original fingerings. Falla’s songs have been variously arranged for strings (the famously fastidious composer gave his blessing to Paweł Kochański’s violin transcription, which was subsequently adapted for the cello by Maurice Maréchal), but Sabbah performs them as they are, without any additional thrills or frills, and for that reason they go straight to the heart. The violist’s engaging booklet notes further enhance this lovingly produced album.

CARLOS MARÍA SOLARE

LOVE IS LIKE A VIOLIN

Salon treasures from the Max Jaffa Library Simon Blendis (violin) Saoko Blendis (piano)

NIMBUS NI 6428

A light music legend is reborn in a beguiling recital

The success of an enterprise such as this depends on the ability of players trained in the mainstream classical tradition to recreate the relaxed, nonchalant, slightly camp atmosphere of Max Jaffa’s originals as naturally as possible. Fortunately, Simon Blendis has nailed the Jaffa style – the rapid portamento inflections, the narrow vibrato, the sweet tone, the elastic phrasing that seems to bend time itself and the intimate tonal shadings which give the impression he is playing only for you.

René Costy’s enchanting Valsette is a near-encyclopaedic compendium of light-music embellishments, all of which Blendis brings off with style and a knowing musical glint in the eye – every phrase pulsates with its own shimmering identity, from a dash of G-string schmaltz to the occasional thrown harmonic and even a touch of spiccato acrobatics. Even when Blendis finds himself in comparison with the masterly Itzhak Perlman, as in Heifetz’s arrangement of Ponce’s Estrellita, he still emerges strongly. Saoko Blendis proves the perfect partner, surfing the tide of these exquisite miniatures with great precision, and the recording balances detail and ambient warmth to perfection.

JULIAN HAYLOCK