Pavel Sporcl

Lovers of violin playing owe a big debt to Naxos, Hungaroton and Supraphon. Naxos is, of course, universal in its artist list, whilst putting special emphasis on the hordes of new violinists coming from Asia. Hungaroton specialises in Hungarians, Supraphon in Czechs. The small part of Europe occupied by assorted Hungarians / Czechs / Romanians / Bulgars / Slovaks / Moldovans has always been rich in violinists and violin playing. Glancing at my personal collection of recordings (and going mainly by name in order to pinpoint probable national origin) I can identify the following concert violinists as coming from that small region:

Josef Suk, Kristof Barati, Peter Csaba, Vaclav Hudecek, Bohuslav Matousek, Vasa Prihoda, Vaclav Snitil, Pavel Sporcl, Ivan Zenaty. Barnabas Kelemen, Vilmos Szabadi, Zoltan Szekely, Josef Szigeti, Mihaly Szücs, Jenö Hubay, Ferenc Szecsödi, László Szentgyörgyi, Johanna Martzy, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Vasco Abadjiev, Stefan Milenkovich, Nemanja Radulovic, Ion Voicu, George Enescu, Hana Kotkovà, Adelina Oprean, Antal Szalai, Irina Muresanu, Mincho Minchev, Stoika Milanova, Vanya Milanova, Ivan Kawaciuk, Silvie Hessova, Josef Spacek, Svetlin Roussev. Not to mention the Lakatos tribe in Hungary that specialises in folk music, and gypsy music, from that region. Pretty impressive, especially considering this is a region of Europe that has always been rich in talent, but relatively poor in ready cash and investment funds.

Which brings me to Pavel Sporcl, a Czech from whom I have four Supraphon CDs, one devoted to Paganini, one to “gypsy” music (folk music of that region) and two to Czech music. All four CDs are excellent, and Sporcl demonstrates the strengths of violin playing in that region of Europe: spot-on intonation, highly focused sound (as opposed to the rich organ-type notes favoured by some other styles of playing), judicious vibrato use, a volatile right hand in wielding the bow. His “Gypsy Way” (with the band Romano Stilo) is great fun; his Paganini suitably virtuosic; his Czech collection of short pieces by Kocian, Laub, Drdla, Ondricek and others very enjoyable listening; and his traversal of more substantial pieces by Smetana, Dvorak, Janacek, Sevcik and Martinu a classic rendition of some Czech masterpieces. As an artist, he seems to have chosen to go the way of first-class violinists such as Nigel Kennedy and Gilles Apap and emulate the popular music scene; never, in my judgement, a wise long-term career move. Whatever; I hang on to my four Pavel Sporcl CDs and hope there will be more.