Re-listened to the solo violin CD from Baiba Skride. Despite David Gomberg's less than enthusiastic reaction to her Baltimore concert, I now find the CD highly impressive. First of all, she can really handle a violin and bow! Secondly, she uses an impressive range of dynamics and knows how to play softly when the music needs it. Her Ysaye first sonata is excellent, and this is possibly the first time I have really enjoyed the Bartok solo sonata (to my surprise). Skride's shading of the dynamics brings out fully the melancholy at the heart of this music.
The Bach (second partita) is well played from the violin point-of-view but, like so many violinists from the East, it is not at the same level of interpretation as the Ysaye or the Bartok. Too interventionist; Bach doesn't need all this care and carressing. The sarabande comes over as adagio molto con espressione; a long way from a dance movement. If Skride has a drawback, it is the (familiar) one of wallowing in slower music and concentrating too hard on always sounding beautiful.
Anyway, I am certainly in the market for more Baiba Skride. As long as it is not, yet again, the concerti of Sibelius, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Bruch or Prokofiev.