COMPOSERS: Hindemith,Prokofiev,Ysaye
LABELS: Ongaku
ALBUM TITLE: Collection: Sonatas for Solo Violin
WORKS: Ysaÿe (Op. 27/2), Hindemith (Op. 31/1 & 2), Prokofiev (Op. 115)
PERFORMER: Ilya Kaler (violin)
CATALOGUE NO: 024-103 DDD
Composers writing for solo violin inevitably look back to Bach, and further, to dance itself. This arresting collection follows the solo sonata from the 1924 E major Partita-inspired Ysaÿe sonata, through the breezy rigour of Hindemith’s works, to Martinon’s phantasmagoric modality. In Barkauskas’s Partita (1967), we can still glimpse Bach, but through irresistible asymmetric jazz rhythms and the whole gamut of violin techniques. Ilya Kaler, an explosive virtuoso, assaults the ears and compels with his sheer fluency.
Helen Wallace