Joseph Achron

Since Paganini, there have been many virtuoso violinists who wrote attractive short pieces of music for their instrument: Ernst, Vieuxtemps, Wieniawski, Ysaÿe, Sarasate and Kreisler spring to mind, though there are many others. After Kreisler, the spring mainly dries up, reflecting the decline in popularity (at least among critics) of encore pieces in favour of heavy sonata recitals. Heifetz (especially) and Milstein produced many excellent arrangements, but few original pieces. So I was curious when Hyperion released over two and a half hours of encore and salon pieces by Joseph Achron, born 1886 in Lithuania – same country as Heifetz. After living in Russia and Germany, he ended up in America in 1925 and gravitated to the Hollywood area (again, like Heifetz).

What is claimed to be all of Achron's music for violin and piano is played by Hagai Shaham, with a typical “Russian-American” warm, even sound and seamless bowing. Like so many of the current era, he takes sentimental pieces too slowly (he should have listened to Heifetz or Hassid in the Hebrew Melody; it drags along endlessly as played here by Shaham). However, the violin playing is up to Shaham's usual high standard. I wish I had found the two and a half hours of short pieces a revelation. But it appears that the much-recorded Hebrew Melody and Hebrew Lullaby are by far the best pieces; most of the other bits on these two CDs are somewhat mundane and nowhere near the standard of people such as Sarasate and Kreisler. So no great new discovery, alas.