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Pablo
de Sarasate was a very distinguished violinist who gave notable
premieres of the Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole, Saint-Saëns Introduction
and Allegro Capriccioso and First Concerto and several Bruch
works. Sarasate was part of a group of 19th century violinist-composers,
the others being Paganini, Vieuxtemps and Wieniawski. There
were also many pianist-composers such as Moscheles, Paderewski,
Scharwenka, etc. These odd birds were great virtuosi who were
also good enough composers to write works to show off their
distinctive abilities, but not good enough composers to write
memorable works except in a few cases. This genre did not
continue into the 20th century and neither Horowitz nor Rubenstein
nor Richter had attempted anything along these lines. Sarasate's
works on this disk are very well-crafted and interesting to
hear. In one case (noted below), Sarasate reached greatness.
His own works are mostly Spanish in flavor, but, oddly enough,
his one work to achieve immortality, Zigeunerweisen [Gypsy
Airs], is not Spanish and is titled in German. Don't they
have gypsies in Spain? At any rate, it's a wonderful work.
Now,
I am forced to confess something shameful. I have ignored
Ruggiero Ricci because, to me when I was a teenager, he looked
more like a wrestler than a violinist. So I have hardly ever
heard him. While I still don't know how he'd play the Beethoven
Violin Concerto, I can only say that he is a wonderful violinist
who plays these virtuoso pieces as if they were Beethoven.
As early as the Spanish Dance #1, I noticed that his spiccato
was incredibly clean and exciting. In Spanish Dance #5 or
#6 the changes of mood were so marvellously captured and there
was clarity on the double-stopping. Finally on Dance #8, the
Spanish rubato really got to me followed by the disciplined
but seemingly orgiastic abandon. The greatest virtuoso playing
but not the greatest music is on the Introduction and Tarentella.
For
Zigeunerweisen, Ricci changes his tone: greater vibrato but
more inward. The first slow part is a lesson in completely
free parlando; it seems as if the music is being improvised
on the spot. The tension seems impossible to bear and then
the "friss" (if these are Hungarian gypsies)
breaks out and we care about nothing-let global warming and
global terrorism and global overpopulation all go to hell-we're
alive now!
Dare
I praise the Pristine Audio reproduction one more time without
being accused of being a shill for the outfit? Well, how about
this? On my Rega Jupiter CD Player and JM Reynaud Concorde
Speakers, there is no reproduction; the music is just there.
Reviewer:
Bill Rosen
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