A light, mercurial, but self-assured reading
Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 04/09/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"In one of those vagaries that puzzle customers, here is a pairing of the Beethoven Violin Cto. with the 'Kreutzer' Sonata hard on the heels of the same pairing from DG. As you'd expect, DG hauls out much bigger guns: the Russian star Vadim Rapin as against the relatively up-and-coming Isabelle Faust from Germany. The guns are bigger with the conductor, orchestra, and pianist, too (no less than Martha Argerich for the sonata).
And yet the 35-year-old Faust offers a mroe natural, vital performance of the concerto, less studied than Rapin's and more emotionally candid. It stands comparison with Mullova's wonderful vrsion for Philips; in both cases the tempos are swift in the long first movement, influenced by period style, and phrasing is flexible but not romantic. Faust's pure intonation and ultra-clean technique remind me of her countryman, Christian Tetzlaff. Like him she relies on purity more than personality for her effects. Her light touch is worlds away from either the steely Heifetz or the earthy Oistrakh. Lovers of virtuosic display may be disappointed by Faust's mercurial way with the finale, which sounds more Mendelssohn than Beethoven.
Such a violinist doesn't seem naturally cut out for the heroics of the 'Kreutzer' Sonata, and I would say this is a modest, almost recessive reading. The lightness of touch remains assured, yet int the end one misses Beethoven's nobility and strength."
Bravo Ms Faust
Motti Adler | Israel | 07/10/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"These are really magnificent performances. After listening to this cd and a couple of other cd's by the German violinist Isabelle Faust, I consider her to be one of today's leading violinists. In the concerto, as well as in the Kreutzer sonata her approach is brisk and flowing with rather economical rubati and vibrati. For this approach she is perfectly matched by the Belohlavek conducting and Melnikov playing. The Prague Philharmonic playing in particular is worth mentioning. I learn it is a chamber orchestra. Well, it certainly sounds here like a full symphonic orchestra. Maybe it's chamber quality lies in the fact that every instrumental section is well differentiated. This is very vivid in both the Tutti sections and in some beautiful solo sections. One example is the nice bassoon line in the development section of the 1st movement (10:23). A second example is the beautiful dialogue between violin and clarinet at the beginning of the 2nd movement. This dialogue brings to my mind a solo clarinet in the 2nd movement of the 4th symphony. Well don't the two works sequel in opus number? I guess the success of the orchestral sound organization here belongs to both conductor and sound engineers.
Maybe one could find these performances somewhat lacking in respect to detail or nuance, compared for example with Perlman, but I think that Faust's approach is no less convincing by bringing the overall musical structure to life, as well as her good blending with the orchestra.
Some reviewer once defined a great performance by passing the test of being listened to many times without becoming boring. Well, for me this is just the case here. Mind you that accomplishing this feat with the Beethoven concerto, which one must admit is quite a "heavy" piece, is quite remarkable. Excellent playing, conducting and recording.
"
Historically-informed performance on modern instruments - an
Discophage | France | 01/15/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I can't believe that it should be mentioned nowhere - neither on the disc's back cover or inside folder nor on its liner notes - that the cadenzas played by Isabelle Faust are Beethoven's. After all, it is NOT an option as common as Kreisler's, and one that doesn't call for mention, let alone a developed comment. I myself wasn't aware of this, my local library had this CD, and since I've embarked upon a Beethoven VC listening spree, I thought I'd give it a try.
Hearing the interpretive approach illustrated in the first movement - one that is, by all means, informed by historical practice - I did wonder what cadenza she would play. As genuinely Beethovenian as Kreisler's cadenza may sound (maybe it is just because we are so used to it), choosing it would have sounded here, given the interpretive approach, somehow anachronistic. So the choice of Beethoven's is sensible, and even inescapable.
Now, Beethoven didn't write any cadenzas for his Violin Concerto. He wrote it in haste, for a benefit concert given on December 23, 1806 by the conductor, fiddler and composer Franz Clément, and entrusted the cadenzas to Clément's compositional and/or improvisatory abilities.
What Beethoven wrote were cadenzas to the reworking of his Violin Concerto in the form of a Piano Concerto, op. 61a, made at the instigation of composer and publisher Clementi. And these cadenzas are pretty wild, not only because of their inclusion of the timpani dialoguing with fiddle in the one to the first movement. Beethoven adds two more (end of 2nd movement and after 2 minutes into the finale). And the cadenzas are wild, simply, like the appasionata on cocaine.
Wolfgang Schneiderhan was apparently the first one to go back to those cadenzas on record, in his 1962 recording with Jochum (see my review of Beethoven, Mozart: Violin Concertos / Schneiderhan, Jochum). Of course, the polyphonic possibilities of the piano are way beyond the capabilities of a fiddle, with its double and triple stops, so using Beethoven's cadenzas implied some adaptation. Schneiderhan's rewriting is clever and tasteful, with minimal cuts in the first movement. I find it entirely convincing (still wild, and many critics back in 1962 thought them too wild, which is ironical, in view of the fact that they ARE, after all, Beethoven's) and Schneiderhan's cadenzas deserve more currency, alongside Kreisler's and Joachim's. Ulf Hoelscher used them in his 1986 recording with Hans Vonk (Beethoven Violin Concerto in D; Romances Nos. 1 & 2). Joseph Swensen (with Previn) in 1988 also went back to Beethoven's cadenzas, but in his own adaptation I believe (haven't heard it, Joseph Swensen - Beethoven Violin Concerto; 2 Romances / Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / Previn (RCA Red Seal)), and same with the recent Christian Tetzlaff with David Zinman (Beethoven: Violin Concerto; Violin Romances). Kremer in 1992 with Harnoncourt did something even wilder, having a fortepiano play the cadenza from the wings (transmitted on stage through loudspeakers) and dialoguing with it, in a violin-fortepiano-timpani trio. Not convincing - and certainly not "historically correct" (Ludwig van Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61 / Romance in G major, Op. 40 / Romance in F major, Op. 50 - Gidon Kremer / Chamber Orchestra of Europe / Nikolaus Harnoncourt). Recently Patricia Kopatchinskaja with Herreweghe chose the option of overdubbing herself (in concerts she dialogues with the orchestra's first fiddle), making the cadenzas sound very much like contemporary music (today's contemporary music, I mean): Beethoven: Complete Works for Violin & Orchestra.
So Schneiderhan's option of adapting the piano part for solo violin remains the most convincing one, and this is what Faust does, playing apparently not Schneiderhan's version but her own (she abridges the first movement cadenza much more than he did, and she also makes an unfortunate cut in the 2nd movement cadenza; the small 3rd movement cadenza is her own, I wonder why she didn't use Beethoven's here).
Other than those cadenza considerations, this is, as mentioned, a "historically-informed" performance. Not period instruments, but chamber-sized orchestra of 39, sounding crisp, muscular, strongly accented (some woodwinds marked p by Beethoven sound f here) and a little rough - don't expect Berlin Phil silk, but it goes well with the overall approach - swift tempos (more so even than Kremer or Kopatchinskaja) and above all limited flexibility: the first movement's lyrical passages are offered very limited easing of tempo to allow them to fully unfold. This is a dramatic view of the Violin Concerto, making it more kin to the Eroica than to the Pastorale (the Violin Concerto actually falls in between both chronologically). Those who can brook no other approach than those illustrated by Menuhin and Oistrakh should steer clear: they are likely to hate this one. Those grown on Heifetz will find nothing shocking here, although I find that Heifetz, at least in his first recording with Toscanini, has a subtlety and eloquence of phrasing that, despite his slightly swifter tempos still, allows him to sing more than Faust. I find Faust and Belohlavek just slightly too tight-fisted and ungiving in the first movement, and I longed for slightly more abandon and songfulness than they provide there. The approach works better in the second movement: the swifter than usual tempo is true to Beethoven's "Larghetto" mark, and results in no loss of lyricism whatsoever. The finale again is swift, lithe and playful - a refreshing change from the more trudging approach which has been the norm in the 20th century.
Faust doesn't have a particularly angelic tone, nothing comparable to Francescatti, Ferras, Zukerman or Suk, but again what she offers in well in situation given the approach and there is no sourness either and no sense of strain in the upper reaches, which Faust plays with engaging purity, especially felicitous in the second movement. Her accents in the first movement can be vehement and she has a rather virile conception of what a "dolce" is - I wouldn't want her for my mom!
So you are not going to find here the kind of interiority and depth of your favorite "traditional" version - but more muscle and drama. Despite my reservations on the first movement, I'd almost give it preference over Kremer's two versions (the other one with Marriner from 1980, with Schnittke's cadenzas), on account of its swifter two last movements and its more convincing cadenzas.
For fillers, Faust and Melnikov offer a dynamic and muscular view of the Kreutzer Sonata, playful in the middle movement. I'll return to it with more detailed comments... whenever I come around to the Kreutzer Sonata. That may be in some years.
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Track Listings (6) - Disc #1