The Nemtanu Sisters play Bach

Around 60 years ago, I began to play the Bach violin concertos on my violin (with piano accompaniment). The A major, the E major and the D minor double concerto (where, for some reason, I always played the violin 1 part). Up until a few decades ago, I could still play the violin parts of the three concertos by heart. Recordings were always a problem; I don't like dry, scrawny imitation “baroque” playing in violin concertos, nor giant symphony orchestra renditions. Best stand-by up until now has been Nathan Milstein in the 1960s, with Erica Morini in the double concerto.

Wanting a good modern recording, I chanced upon the two sisters Deborah and Sarah Nemtanu, with the Paris Chamber Orchestra. Deborah plays the A minor, Sarah the E major, and both play the D minor. A couple of Bach Two-part Inventions are included, with Deborah playing the viola and Sarah the violin.

Pleasant versions of these over-familiar works. Neither violinist is “baroque”, thank heavens, although many tempi are slightly faster than I would have liked. Since Johann Sebastian Bach gave no timings -- he probably did not even own a stopwatch -- I am not sure from whence comes the idea that Bach's music must jog along at a rapid pace. Certainly his music needs to flow; but it also needs to breathe.

The CD also contains a concerto grosso for two violins, harpsichord and string orchestra by Alfred Schnittke. Not altogether a good idea, I feel. Schnittke's work is pleasant enough, but is totally out-classed by Bach; a bit like putting me in a boxing ring with Muhammed Ali in his prime.

Mauro Tortorelli plays Saint-Saëns

In a world completely awash with first-class concert violinists, one rarely hears of Italian violinists, except in the context of “baroque” players scrubbing away on their old instruments. I have been very happy to make the acquaintance of Mauro Tortorelli, first when I heard him in the first of Sandro Fuga's violin and piano sonatas, and now on a CD of the violin & piano music of Camille Saint-Saëns, including the two sonatas for violin and piano. I would characterise Tortorelli's sound as “sunny and relaxed”, perhaps an appropriate reflection of Italy.

I am, of course, a member of the Saint-Saëns fan club (there are not many of us), but an additional source of pleasure with the current CD was provided by Giovanni Caruso, the “sound engineer & producer” on this Brilliant Classics disc. A lot of Saint-Saëns's music calls for the violin to play pianissimo, and it is not too often nowadays that sound engineers understand that we need to be able to hear both piano and violin, even when the violinist is playing very softly. We can hear every note that Signor Tortorelli plays – thanks also to the light-fingered pianist, Angela Meluso. A CD I bought on a whim, but one that is giving me much pleasure for the music, the playing and the recording.

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.

Sandro Fuga

I've always had a soft spot for music of the post-romantic, early Impressionist era, with composers such as Elgar, Chausson, Fauré, Ysaÿe, Lekeu, Debussy, Janacek, Ravel, Saint-Saëns, Strauss, Enescu, Magnard, et al. Music that dates from the years before the iconoclasts took charge of fashionable critical opinion. Thus it is somewhat unusual to find me listening to three sonatas for violin and piano composed, respectively, in 1938, 1972 and 1989. However, the three sonatas by the unknown Sandro Fuga are well worth playing, and well worth repeated listening. The sound is of around 1910; but what is wrong with that? In his day, Johann Sebastian Bach was frequently criticised for his old-fashioned music, looking back to the days of polyphony in the 17^th century, rather than forward to the melody-based music of the 18^th. such as that by Handel, Vivaldi, Porpora, et al. Fuga's three sonatas are enjoyable. The playing by Mauro Tortorelli, Alessandro Milani and Sergio Lamberto (violins) with Giacomo Fuga (presumably a relative of the composer) at the piano sounds fine, and the Naxos recording and price pleases, as usual. A CD for all lovers of post-romantic, Impressionist music, and not to be listened to once and then filed away. Will any brave violinist dare to record one or more of the sonatas (the second, for example) or to play them in public and risk the wrath of the critical avant-garde?

Lunch today was my famous Thai soup, with squid and crevettes. This evening will be Thai soup with mussels. A good day musically, and gastronomically. And excellent wine (2008 from a Bachelet vineyard around 10 kilometres from Beaune, that I have often visited, and from which I have bought many bottles, over the years).

My "Keep to Hand". Start of 2015

My “keep to hand” CD rack has only fifteen spaces, and these are occupied by recordings I am reluctant to shelve away more permanently, for the time being. The rack contents change over the course of the year and in no way reflect “best” or “favourite”; simply recordings I know I will want to come back to shortly. Some are there mainly because of the music; some because of the performances. Some have been there quite a long time. Some, a shorter time. At the start of 2015, the 15 slots in the rack are filled by (in random order):

• Wieniawski, Conus, Vieuxtemps violin concertos. Soo-Hyun Park. 69 minutes. Onyx. Lovely music. Well played by all concerned, and well recorded.
• Schubert – Quartet D810 and Quintet D956 – Pavel Haas Quartet. Supraphon. Probably a new classic recording of two classic chamber works.
• Schubert – Piano sonatas D850 / 958 / 959 / 960 – Leif Ove Andsnes. EMI
• Shostakovich – Violin Concertos 1 and 2. Christian Tetzlaff. Ondine
• Pergolesi – Stabat Mater. Julia Lezhneva / Philippe Jaroussky. Erato
• Khachaturian and Shostakovich violin concertos. James Ehnes. Onyx
• Sarasate – Fantaisies. Volker Reinhold. DGM. So good to have a collection of Sarasate opera fantasies, well played and in one place.
• Ravel / Shostakovich. Piano Trios. Smetana Trio. Supraphon.
• Janacek/ Smetana / Prokofiev. Josef Spacek. Supraphon
• Rachmaninov 3 / Prokofiev 2. Yuja Wang. DGG
• Igor Levit – Bach Partitas. Sony.
• Igor Levit – Beethoven late sonatas. Sony
• Marc-André Hamelin: Schumann / Janacek. Hyperion
•  Kreisler / Zimbalist / Ysaÿe – Fine Arts Quartet. Naxos. Rarely heard music, good to listen to, well played and recorded.
• Schubert – Sonatas D845 and 960. Maria Pires. DGG. Another instant classic recording.

Interesting how well the smaller European labels do (Supraphon, Onyx, Ondine, Sony-Germany). And how relatively young all the performers are (apart from Maria Pires). As all the voting forums say: this list is not necessarily representative !

Wishes for 2015

My three modest musical wishes for 2015:

• Igor Levit – Bach: Goldberg Variations. Beethoven: Diabelli Variations. Schubert: late piano sonatas.
• Tianwa Yang – Paganini, 24 capricci (she recorded them when she was 13 but, after her triumph in the Ysaÿe, sonatas, she should re-do a definitive version).
• Pavel Haas Quartet – more late Schubert string quartets. Start on the late Beethoven string quartets with Op 130 with the Große Fuge as finale.

Handel's Messiah: Emmanuelle Haïm

During the immediate post-war period when he was a freelance musician, my father frequently declared that Handel wrote his Messiah so that orchestral musicians would never starve during the month of December. I thought of him this Christmas week when, quite by chance, a new recording of the Messiah arrived, a release conducted by Emmanuelle Haïm, a conductor I have frequently admired in the past.

As a very young teenager, I was given six or so 78 rpm records of the Messiah featuring, as I recall it, excerpts from the first part. Haïm's Messiah is somewhat different from these old recordings from the 1940s, but I liked it very much. The orchestra is French, and well recorded. The chorus is British, some twenty singers in number, and gives a welcome clarity to Handel's choruses with sufficient weight and gravitas, in a recording, to do justice to Handel's great choral numbers. The vocal quartet is also British, with Lucy Crowe as the jewel in the crown; she really is one of my favourite baroque sopranos. Unfortunately Haïm opts for a dreaded counter-tenor rather than for a female alto or contralto; maybe she had little choice after pressure from the castratos' union but, I, for one, prefer the natural voices of soprano, tenor, alto and bass rather than this strange counter-tenor breed. An excellent recording and balance by a French team for Erato makes this a very strong version of Messiah. I never thought I'd be listening to the oratorio during Christmas week. Haïm is forceful and exuberant, as ever, but without going to the extreme lengths of some conductors of baroque music (though I could have done with a slightly more reticent drummer, on occasions; he does tend to thwack a bit). Anyway: three stars.

Schubert's String Quintet - Pavel Haas Quartet

There is a handful of timeless classical masterpieces (or perhaps, more accurately, a basketful). In the hand – or basket – is Schubert's C major string quintet, D 956, one of the very last works Schubert lived to write. With this work alone Schubert earns his place at the top table with Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. It's a work I have loved since the 1950s; it's evergreen and one can never, ever become tired of listening to it.

I have eight recordings of the work, including with such luminaries as Casals, Heifetz, and the Amadeus Quartet (the version with which I grew up in the 1950s on an old LP). All older versions and rivals are, however, completely swept aside for me by the Pavel Haas Quartet (four Czechs, with a German-Japanese second cellist). The quartet plays the music with a passion a long way from Alt Wien, Gemütlichkeit and all that Viennese stuff. This is great music in the raw, a little like Beethoven's Große Fuge, with no holds barred and no prisoners taken. Recorded in Prague only last year, it is already one of the Great Recordings of the Century, in my book.

Furtwängler conducts Beethoven's Ninth Symphony

I have always liked the Große Fuge as a dramatic finale to Beethoven's Op 130 string quartet in B flat, and regret that pressure from “experts” persuaded him to substitute a lightweight “get you home” finale in its place. When I listen to the Op 130 quartet, I usually try to find a version that allows me to go back to Beethoven's original intention and end with the Fuge.

Would that those same “experts” had prevailed upon Beethoven to re-think the finale of his ninth symphony. After a superb and dramatic first movement, and a truly sublime slow movement, we plunge into an awkward mixture of banality and sublimity, with a chorus belting out Freude, schöner Götterfunken, a quartet of four solo voices occasionally contributing little, orchestral interludes that are often superb, and the occasional chorus that is really moving, such as Seid umschlungen, Millionen! For me, a bit of a let-down after the variations of the slow movement.

I rarely listen to the ninth, but heard it again yesterday, mostly with pleasure. The conductor was Wilhelm Furtwängler in a well re-mastered CD from Audite of the Swiss broadcast tapes of the 22^nd August 1954 performance at the Lucerne Festival – Furtwängler's final performance of the ninth, after conducting it over 100 times. There are a number of recordings around of Furtwängler conducting this work, notably the truly demonic performance on 22^nd March 1942 in Berlin, and the Bayreuth Festival 1951 recording (with the wobbly horn in the adagio). In some ways, Furtwängler was “Mr Ninth Symphony” with classic versions of the Beethoven, Schubert and Bruckner 9s to his credit. This new re-mastering is good, given the mono 1954 origin of the broadcast tapes; like most such historical recordings, it is best listened to via very good loudspeakers, rather than through headphones. In 1954 the Philharmonia orchestra (that played in the Lucerne performance) was near the top of its form. A good version of Beethoven's ninth to have.

Jenö Hubay

This week has been something of a Jenö Hubay week, not a composer who is often talked about these days, outside of his well-known Hejre Kati for violin & piano (always called “Hairy Katy” by a friend of mine). But here I was listening to multiple versions of his four violin concertos, plus a CD of short pieces for violin & piano. And I was very happy to do so.

The CD of short pieces was played by Ferenc Szecsödi with Istvan Kassai as pianist (Hungaroton) and is one of thirteen CDs recorded by the pair comprising Hubay's music for violin & piano. First surprise was the quality of the music; one hour of “best of Hubay” is probably of equal stature to one hour of “best of Kreisler”, but guess who has always had the greater fame and exposure? Hubay's Carmen Fantasy is as good as Sarasate's, and a lot better than the flashy piece by Franz Waxman, but guess again who gets the greater exposure?

Second surprise was the violin playing of Ferenc Szecsödi; my first reaction was: “the Léner String Quartet”, since the string sound is very similar to that 1930s sound. Jenö Léner and his violin and viola colleagues were all pupils of Hubay (the cellist was a David Popper pupil in Budapest). Szecsödi's sound, like that of the Léners, is intensely smooth, with low bow pressure and sparing vibrato, and is immediately identifiable as “school of Hubay”, though Hubay, who died in 1937, would not have taught Szecsödi, of course. Szecsödi's technique is impeccable in these pieces I listened to.

On to the four violin concertos by Hubay, very rarely played or recorded these days, for some inexplicable reason. Jenö Hubay was born in 1858, so his musical language is very much end of nineteenth century. The first concerto is excellent; the second and third highly enjoyable; I don't like the fourth much, since it was written “in the old style” and comes over as a kind of eighteenth century pastiche, coming from the head rather than the heart. Hubay's slow movements are strong points, with long singing lines, and he also had the important gift of being able to write memorable tunes, melodies or themes .... unlike so many of his twentieth century competitors. I find the last movement cadenza of the third concerto over-long (I don't like long cadenzas).

I listened to the first two concertos played by Chloë Hanslip, Vilmos Szabadi and by Hagai Shaham. All were excellent, but Hanslip disqualifies herself by taking the two slow movements far too slowly, a common defect by many modern players trying to squeeze maximum feeling out of slow music and ending up killing it. Hanslip's liner notes for the first concerto's slow movement term it adagio ma non tanto and she drags it out for 11' 33”. Szabadi's and Shaham's sleeve notes term it andante ma non tanto and they take 8' 26” and 8' 57” respectively; quite a difference. Similarly, in the second movement larghetto of the second concerto, Hanslip crawls along at 9' 13”, whilst the two competitors do 6' 49” and 7' 02” respectively. Stopwatches only tell part of the story, of course. But Hanslip needs to learn that playing too slowly induces boredom; music needs to flow like a stream, or it becomes stagnant.

Szabadi has the North Hungarian Symphony Orchestra, Shaham the BBC Scottish Orchestra, and Hanslip the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Both Szabadi and Shaham are good buys, though at a pinch I think the Hungarian team with Szabadi comes in just before the Israeli-Scottish team since the music seems to flow even more naturally with the Hungarians. High time there was a Hubay renaissance.

My Most Memorable Top Three of 2014

It is coming to the end of 2014 and everyone and his dog is making lists of the “best 10” or the “favourite 20”, or whatever. Since I listen to a lot of music, and buy far too many new CDs each month, I'd better get my list in, as well. I'll avoid the overkill of “best historical” (though Pristine Audio, in particular, has made a great improvement to many of my classic recordings). Or “best violin”, since it is difficult sorting through the many superb violinists who have come along, including Tianwa Yang, Kristof Barati and Josef Spacek. Or “best vocal CD” since there are hordes of them from the likes of Joyce DiDonato, Sandrine Piau, Diana Damrau, and many others. Let me just therefore pinpoint my Most Memorable Three CD sets of 2014. In order of composition of the music, they are:

• Bach: Six keyboard partitas (Igor Levit)
• Beethoven: Late piano sonatas (Igor Levit)
• Schubert: Die Winterreise (Jonas Kaufman and Helmut Deutsch)

I have written about all these elsewhere in this blog. Remarkably, all three come from Sony Classical and were recorded in Germany. All three will stay near at hand and not be filed away with the hordes of others. I find all three truly superb and was particularly amazed at Die Winterreise, a work I have known intimately for over 60 years but have now been weaned well and truly from the classic older recordings by Hans Hotter or Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. And it is truly extraordinary that Igor Levit has only issued two CD albums so far, and that both end up in my top three. It goes without saying that "top three" takes into account the music, as well as the performances.

Music for Violin & PIano by Franz Liszt

I was surprised to hear of a CD featuring music for violin and piano by a major composer, never having heard of the music before. But a new Naxos CD announces music for violin and piano by Franz Liszt, a composer beloved of pianists and known mainly for his piano music. But lo and behold, we have a Duo Sonata on Polish themes (a sort-of 22 minute variation in four movements on Chopin's Mazurka in C sharp minor Op 6 No.2); a nice 10 minute piece called The Three Gypsies and written for the Hungarian violinist Eduard Remenyi; a 15 minute Grand duo concertant on Lafont's “Le marin”; and a few other shorter works. A total of 70 minutes of highly enjoyable and tuneful music, all entirely unknown to me until this week. Another reason to give thanks to companies such as Naxos.

The music is performed by Voytek Proniewicz and Wojciech Waleczek, hardly names that trip off the tongue. Difficult to judge how well they do, having no competition and playing music I did not know at all. But they make enjoyable sounds and are well balanced and well recorded. An excellent addition to repertoire of likeable music for violin and piano.

Tasmin Little

Tasmin Little has never been a violinist who has featured high in my Pantheon of violinists. I bought a CD of hers years ago, featuring short bits and pieces for violin (the sort of music I love). Such pieces are difficult to play so as to hold the listener's attention, since they demand the kind of variety of bow strokes, dynamics, rubato and vibrato that modern violinists all too often lack. So Tasmin went into the “OK” bin after one hearing.

I bought a new Chandos recording featuring her and Martin Roscoe (piano) because it contained two of my very favourite sonatas for violin and piano: the sonata by Guillaume Lekeu, and the first sonata by Gabriel Fauré. Lovely to have these two favourite works on one CD, and I have to say, I was impressed by the playing of both artists, and by the Chandos recording; too few recording companies balance violin and piano to my satisfaction. Ms Little plays with real passion, with real tenderness, and often with real bravura. She and Mr Roscoe get my three stars.

Renaud Capuçon, Khatia Buniatishvili, and César Franck

The sonata for violin and piano in A major by César Franck was written in 1886 as a wedding present for Eugène Ysaÿe. My groaning shelves currently contain no less than 55 different recordings of the work, the oldest (and perhaps greatest) being by Jacques Thibaud and Alfred Cortot in 1923 (the pair re-recorded the work post-electric recording in 1929). Every violinist plays the work; even I, in my youth, played both the violin and the viola versions. Technically the violin part is not too virtuosic, though the piano part is often tricky.

It is important to remember the work's Franco-Belgian origins, since all too often this music of the high-Romantic era is beefed up by violinists and pianists so that it sounds almost Russian, Italian or German. Ysaÿe was a sophisticated violinist, and I immediately took to the suave, sophisticated sound of Renaud Capuçon on a brand new Erato CD. This, surely, is how Franck's violin part is meant to sound. I cannot fault Capuçon's sound or playing in this work, where he seems to be following in the august footsteps of the great Belgian Arthur Grumiaux, another suave and sophisticated player.

A big attraction of this CD for me, however, was to re-hear Khatia Buniatishvili in the piano part. The Franck sonata is very much a duo sonata (even if the violin part is somewhat the more important) and it benefits from a pianist of at least similar stature to the violinist (thus the historic success of Cortot and Thibaud, and Ferras and Barbizet). Buniatishvili did not disappoint; she has an extraordinary touch on the piano keyboard and I have mentally nicknamed her “velvet paws” for the sleek, purring sound she often obtains from her piano – not that she is reticent or limp-wristed, quite the contrary – but her sound is so distinctive (and she is also an excellent musician and partner, here). All in all, this makes for a truly memorable and enjoyable account of César Franck's somewhat over-played sonata. I'll come back to it with pleasure. And, a plus, Erato has balanced the violin and piano parts as they should be balanced (for these works).

Mozart's K. 516

A surprisingly large number of musical works that are still very special to me date from my teenage years. These include: Sibelius' 6th symphony, Mahler's 4th, Beethoven's 6th, Tchaikovsky's 6th, Brahms' 4th, Bruckner's 9th, Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, Schubert's last B flat major piano sonata, Schubert's Die Winterreise, Elgar's violin concerto, Bach's Mass in B minor ... and Mozart's string quintet in G minor K. 516.

The Mozart quintet has always seemed to me to be a very personal demonstration of why Mozart was a genius. The quintet is not written to impress; it is personal and written by someone who could just pour out really great music. In my early youth the work was on an old Pye-Nixa LP played by the Amadeus Quartet, with Cecil Aronowitz. Listening yesterday, it was played by the Grumiaux Trio, augmented by an additional violinist and viola player. The Grumiaux version was recorded by Philips in 1973 and, after the first two notes, I am basking in a meeting with an old, old friend. I am also enjoying finding the old friend being introduced by Arthur Grumiaux; who needs alternative versions?

It is sad that, in much of the Western world, young people and teenagers are no longer exposed to any significant quantities of “classical” music. Music you get to love when you are young stays with you for life. After 60 years, Mozart's K. 516 still enthrals me.

Stravinsky, and Yevgeny Kutik

Over the past 60 years of my music listening, Stravinsky's music seems to have faded slowly in popularity, no longer frequently programmed, no longer frequently recorded. In the 1950s and 60s I lapped up Firebird, Petrouchka, Rite, Symphony of Psalms, Soldier's Tale … and even the more obscure ballets of Agon and Threni. Nowadays Firebird and Petrouchka still get aired; but not much else from Igor with his instinct for commercially acceptable, fashionable avant-garde music. I greatly enjoyed a disc of wayside music for violin and piano played by one Yevgeny Kutik (very ably accompanied by Timoth Bozarth, and well recorded by the Marquis label). Kutik has a ripe sound and style reminiscent often of the wailing Jewish and gypsy sounds from eastern Europe (in fact, Kutik's sound often reminded my of the late, great Mischa Elman). On a new CD, Kutik treats us to ephemeral pieces by Eshpai, Prokofiev, Anton Rubinstein, Stravinsky, Khachaturian, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich and a couple of east European locals. The CD is doubly welcome for avoiding the usual hackneyed short pieces. Stravinsky's Divertimento (cobbled together by Stravinsky and Samuel Dushkin from the ballet Baiser de la Fée in order to raise a few dollars) does not impress; OK, it's “Russian”, in the sense that Stravinsky was ever any particular nationality. But the acerbic Divertimento sounds thin beside the Russian lushness of Tchaikovsky, Eshpai, Rubinstein, et al. Could Kutik not have found some more congenial Russian morceaux that suited his playing better?

Anyway, this is an enjoyable CD, and the Stravinsky can always be skipped by the choosey (like me).

Lupu, Pires and Schubert

A correspondent chides me gently for seemingly loving every music recording I listen to. Not true actually; it's just that I usually gloss over the recordings that leave me cold or indifferent. It often seems a bit unfair to criticise hard-working professional musicians on the grounds I didn't like their results.

Recently I purchased two recordings of one of my primary works: Schubert's B flat major sonata D 960. I am now the proud possessor of 17 different versions of this incredible and multi-faceted piano sonata. I bought a new version by Klara Würtz, a pianist I much admired in her duo playing with Kristof Barati in the Beethoven and Brahms violin & piano sonatas. Her performance of the Schubert was good, but competition is very stiff in this work, and this OK performance is not one I'll be returning to often. A little disappointed, I decided to acquire the famous 1991 recording by the almost mythical Radu Lupu, a performance very highly praised by many. I listened to it once, and was puzzled that, for once, Schubert's music was not gripping me as usual. So I pressed replay and listened again. Still no buzz. So I put on the recent recording by Maria Pires ... and was back in the familiar and wonderful world of Schubert's last sonata. After nearly two hours of the B flat major sonata played three times in succession, my neighbours must have been becoming agitated.

When one listens to Lupu's phenomenal playing in the sonata, it's mainly about Lupu and less about Schubert. Pires plays the music simply, doubtless with her art concealing art. With the Pires performance, one listens to Schubert. With the Lupu performance, one listens to Lupu. I am becoming a real fan of Pires's piano playing.

Leonid Borisovich Kogan

Leonid Borisovich Kogan was one of Russia's pre-eminent violinists during the 1950s, 60s and 70s. He died in 1982 at the early age of 58, still playing and still teaching (in Moscow). A confirmed communist all his life, and apparently a somewhat unlikeable character, his place in the affections of the Western musical and political world was far behind that of his gregarious and generous colleague, David Oistrakh. Even today, over 30 years after Kogan's death, Oistrakh is still talked of fondly; Kogan rarely.

Kogan left many recordings, most of them – sadly – no longer available, and all too few of them in good sound. It was brave and praiseworthy of a new transfer label, Amare, to re-issue Kogan's 1959 recording of the Beethoven violin concerto, with the Paris Conservatoire orchestra conducted by Constantin Silvestri. Even though I had this recording already (EMI) I bought it to evaluate the transfer. The sound on the Amare CD is better than the EMI, especially – and most importantly – as regards the sound of Kogan's violin. I liked this performance very much indeed; it is somewhat leisurely, but Kogan impresses mightily throughout. The Paris orchestra with Silvestri is something of a “B” team in Beethoven; a long way from Furtwängler and the Berlin Philharmonic. The CD is exceptional because of Kogan, and this is a Beethoven violin concerto recording I shall be replaying mainly to rejoice in the playing of the violin part.

Kogan was highly impressive in the concerto works of Paganini, Khachaturian, Lalo, Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Beethoven. His Paganini first concerto, and Tchaikovsky violin concerto, are in the top half dozen or so performances of all recorded time. Let us hope that Amare, or others, will be bringing back the best of Kogan. I have amassed a very large collection of Kogan recordings over the years, but welcome anyone who can improve the often highly imperfect original sounds that date from the 1940s, 50s and 60s (in the main, though Kogan was recording right up until 1981).