This traversal of the complete solo
sonatas was originally released on Arte Nova 67511 2 and its
reappearance on Oehms in their extensive Schmid series is welcome.
Not that this is a standard recommendation; these impulsive
and highly personalised readings convey a powerful engagement
with the Bachian rhetoric enshrined within them – but also an
individual approach to period style and to matters of metrical
freedom and rhythm generally. Schmid avoids the slow tempi that
can afflict more lugubrious interpretations (for all Mordkovitch’s
skill I find her tempi too slow to generate incisive tension)
though he never aspires to the kind of adrenalin laced dynamism
that characterises Ricci’s old cycle, which I last caught on
a Turnabout CD reissue. His solutions to the manifold difficulties
set by these works – composed in a white heat of inspiration
in 1924 – are to balance stylistic features common to the violinists
who inspired the six (Kreisler, Szigeti, Thibaud and Enescu
among them) with the dictates of a prevailing contemporary aesthetic.
He’s not as febrile
as Ricci in the First nor as aristocratic as Shumsky (Nimbus
– now available on a boxed set devoted to some of the violinist’s
Nimbus recordings) though his tone is more cleanly centred than
the former in the Fugato. Here though he shows a distinct individuality
when it comes to elastic rhythm, modifying his tempi quite daringly.
In the Obsession of the Second he doesn’t stress the almost
malign qualities of the music, such as Ricci finds with his
outsize dynamics and roughened tone and hews to a straighter
line in the Malinconia second movement – where some competitors
stress the veiled viola-like sonorities to telling effect. His
pizzicati in the third movement of the same sonata are quite
aggressive though, though they’re not as cohesive as Ricci’s
or Shumsky’s. Though Ricci is a minute faster than Schmid in
the Third Sonata, Schmid nevertheless characterises it extremely
well and there are some finely nuanced dynamic shadings in the
Fourth for example.
The recording is
natural and perhaps just a touch too forward sounding. But it
allows dynamic gradients to sound effortlessly and is warmly
sympathetic. A note of caution regarding the documentation;
from the track listing it looks as if there are only five sonatas
but something has gone awry with the printing and they’re actually
all here. My principal recommendation remains Shumsky; Ricci
brings a welcome taste of paprika to the proceedings. I’ve not
heard the widely praised Zehetmair ECM. Schmid brings youth,
enterprise and occasional idiosyncrasy.
Jonathan Woolf
Benjamin Schmid (violin)
