Smirnov reviews

Bozidar Vukotic (cello), Alissa Firsova (piano) (SOMM Recordings)

This disc smacks of vanity publishing – an excuse to show off as a performer without too much attention paid to the choice of music. Over an hour of unbroken unaccompanied violin is likely to be austere from the greatest composers, but a hotchpotch of unknown 20th-century works with virtually no information about any of them suggests an oddly motivated disc. However, a substantial 15-minute work by David Matthews, Winter Journey, written in the early Eighties, demonstrates how effective a concentrated use of limited means can be, compared with the ‘butterfly’ approach.

A tireless champion of new music for the violin, and leader of the Kreutzer Quartet, Peter Sheppard Skaerved is the dedicatee of numerous new works for the instrument. This disc of works written within the last 40 years, taking its title from Henze’s Étude philharmonique, shows Sheppard Skaerved at his breathtaking best. His sleek purity of tone and technical brilliance are almost overshadowed by his gift for communicating these demanding pieces with effortless spontaneity.

Clever programming, to commission six short works, each of which reflects, fascinatingly, and quite differently, on one of Beethoven’s Op. 18 Quartets: from the Mexican urban dance music of Alvarez, through Tanaka’s simple series of modulations and Beamish’s American-inspired fragmentation, to Firsova’s moving treatment of ‘La malincolia’ from Op. 18/6. But these CDs also remind us that, as the music of the past recedes with the passing of time, it’s harder to inhabit its sensibilities.