Prokofiev, Saint-Saëns, Ysaÿe & Chausson: Violin Sonatas

Album review

Violinist Jack Liebeck and pianist Katya Apekisheva have selected an impressive program for this 2004 CD, and have turned in earnest performances that deserve a serious hearing. Unfortunately, the sound quality is an obstacle to enjoyment, for Quartz's questionable engineering makes these musicians sound distant and lacking in presence, and the recital hall's highly reverberant acoustics are a liability. The recording's indifferent tone is probably due to faulty microphone placement or bad mixing; but the duo's slightly uncoordinated playing may be attributed to the way sound ricochets off the walls, and occasionally throws the violinist out of sync with his accompaniment. Despite a vigorous performance of Prokofiev's Sonata No. 2 in D major, a moody, atmospheric reading of Chausson's Poème, Op. 25, and a compelling interpretation of the Sonata No. 1 in D minor by Saint-Saëns -- the most emotionally satisfying of the disc -- Liebeck and Apekisheva nevertheless have to struggle to keep together, and their playing is often challenged by the room's tricky responsiveness. Liebeck's intensely rhapsodic rendition of Ysaÿe's Sonata No. 3 in D minor for solo violin works fairly well, for it is at least free of coordination problems, but the excessive resonance still surrounds the violin with an aural haze.
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