Akiko Suwanai

Since the early 1950s I have collected recordings of violinists and violin playing. I am now starting to shed much of my collection, since many performers simply do not age too well. One violinist whose recordings I will never delete, is Akiko Suwanai. She came second in the Queen Elizabeth in Brussels in 1989, and first in the Tchaikovsky in Moscow in 1990. In both competitions she played the Paganini D major concerto and the Moscow performance, in particular, is an amazing performance of true gold standard.

I have just been listening to a CD she recorded in Paris in 2016, with the pianist Enrico Pace (a present from a friend). The recording is excellent, with that difficult to achieve balance between piano and violin. The two works are the Franck sonata, plus the early Strauss sonata. Twenty six years on from Moscow, her playing has not diminished in the slightest; her performance of the Franck sonata, in particular, is suffused with a tender lyricism and the sonata sheds the beefiness from which it so often suffers. Throughout, Enrico Pace is an excellent partner.

She has had a relatively low profile career, but is well known to connoisseurs of violin playing. On record, she appears to specialise in the late romantic repertoire, with an impressive discography. Her recordings are always an excellent choice and I am particularly fond of her Dvorak Four Romantic Pieces (with Boris Berezovsky, 1998). She is notable for Czech music, also for Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Wieniawski. I heard her in person only once, giving an impressive performance of the Bartok violin concerto in Washington, with her hair flying in all directions. Akiko Suwanai is always on my automatic buy list.