Perplexing CD of James Ehnes playing short pieces on a variety of old Italian instruments (CD kindly supplied by Lee). Perplexing because Ehnes scores 10/10 as regards violin playing -- intonation, bowing, fingering, intelligence, style. No faults; not one.
Violinists such as Kreisler, Rabin, Heifetz, Elman, Kogan ... and now Jansen, Ibragimova, Josefowicz, Kavakos, et al -- bring to their playing a mixture of warmth, affection, emotion, love, exuberance, grace, style and charm == either as regards their violins, or the music: or both. For me, Ehnes' playing -- like that of past maestros such as Kubelik and Prihoda -- is devoid of emotional involvement. "A" for violin playing; "A" for musical intelligence; "C" for emotional involvement, that magic Ingredient "X" that transforms marvellous performances into great ones. Emotional involvement is often present in recordings; one has only to think of Leila Josefowicz's searing performance of Shostakovitch's first violin concerto (2006), or Lara St. John's recent recording of the Bach unaccompanied sonatas and partitas. But it ain't present in Ehnes's current recital.
Violinists such as Kreisler, Rabin, Heifetz, Elman, Kogan ... and now Jansen, Ibragimova, Josefowicz, Kavakos, et al -- bring to their playing a mixture of warmth, affection, emotion, love, exuberance, grace, style and charm == either as regards their violins, or the music: or both. For me, Ehnes' playing -- like that of past maestros such as Kubelik and Prihoda -- is devoid of emotional involvement. "A" for violin playing; "A" for musical intelligence; "C" for emotional involvement, that magic Ingredient "X" that transforms marvellous performances into great ones. Emotional involvement is often present in recordings; one has only to think of Leila Josefowicz's searing performance of Shostakovitch's first violin concerto (2006), or Lara St. John's recent recording of the Bach unaccompanied sonatas and partitas. But it ain't present in Ehnes's current recital.
6 comments:
How sad when your violin playing is superb & intelligent but can't sound involved and can't sound magically like the old & great masters.
You don't need to be an old master to put emotion and humanity into your playing; plenty of violinists since the 1950s have managed to do so -- I've mentioned Josefowicz and Shostakovich, but one could also mention performances by Repin, Sarah Chang, Simone Lamsma, and plenty of others.
As always, you left aside Oistrakh.
I have heard Repin & Chang live here but Chang is now going over the top with her emotion. I preferred a less hysterical approach that Chang's current style.
In her youth, Chang was always a spontaneously "romantic" player. I admired her very much. I gather her youthful spontaneity has become somewhat stylised of late, but I haven't heard her for a while. The Mendelssohn concerto I heard her play when she was around 13 still stands in my memory as a true lyrical outpouring. Fortunately, it was broadcast so I have a tangible souvenir of the Festival Hall concert.
Well, her Bruch was OTT and over played in terms of vibrato (wide in high positions - and the intonation sounded very sharp). Also, she puts in many tempo changes that are not in the Urtext - like the last bit in the finale - when the accelerando came in much earlier than marked. She tries too hard. We should lock her up and make her listen to Grumiaux recordings for a month.
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