Friday 17 February 2012

Pijun Xu

The viola is not a large violin tuned a fifth lower, however much some moonlighting violinists try to pretend. In sound, it is more akin to the cello and demands a quite different playing technique from the violin. I like the sound of “true” viola players such as Tabea Zimmerman and Pierre Lénert and to these I can now add the Chinese viola player Pijun Xu; from the CD cover picture of her, she is either a small woman playing a normal size viola, or a normal woman playing a large viola. The sound is lovely – husky and sombre, with contrasting brightness on the 'A' string.

A nice programme, with three Schubert song arrangements, Vieuxtemps' Elégie, two Chopin Nocturnes – all the pieces mainly sentimental, but all played without slowing things down and dragging the music out. Ms Xu is not a “dig in” player, but makes a nice sound. Rebecca Clarke's sonata for viola and piano is also on the CD; I've another recording of it and must have heard it before, but I did not remember a note. First item on the CD is Bach's second partita for solo violin (arranged for viola – something Bach would no doubt have approved of wholeheartedly, but which will have baroque fundamentalists swallowing their quill pens). In her expert and enjoyable Bach playing, Ms Xu lacks the fantasy and wide sound palette that violinists such as Thomas Zehetmair, Alina Ibragimova and Lara St. John bring to their solo violin playing; the sound here reminded me of Joanna Martzy back in the 1950s. However, Pijun has technique to spare, and this is a highly enjoyable CD with an interesting and stimulating selection of works – all but the Clarke and the Vieuxtemps in arrangements for viola. She plays the Bach tuned down to “baroque pitch” which makes it sound all the more husky, attractive and “different”.

Having just taken delivery of a box of six CDs of Mahler symphonies conducted by Otto Klemperer and played by the Philharmonia (why?) I decided to re-venture into Mahler and returned to the ninth symphony. Alas, it did not hold my attention and I abandoned listening before the noisy third movement, which I dislike. Gustav and I just do not see eye to eye; I find him flashy and without depth.

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