Wide-ranging and somewhat exploratory this is
a disc that lives up to its annotator’s claim that it’s a twentieth
century travelogue. Of course the corollary is you never stay
in one place very long and the same is true of the sonatas that
the duo espouse, which are represented by isolated movements (Poulenc,
Corigliano, Greenbaum and Garrop). So what might seem a tantalising
prospect in the brochure, the equivalent of a three-week holiday
in the South Seas, turns out to be the equivalent of island hopping.
Another day, another nationality.
Which is not to find fault with the performers
or their ambition. But the programme is very bitty and I think
their enthusiasms would have been better served – and their commitment
to the repertoire better supported – by a more focused anthology
than we have here. Korngold’s Garden Scene from Much Ado About
Nothing has always had its stellar adherents but Gil Shaham has
led the field on disc; I like Tsunoda’s rather husky tone but
one shift seems to cause her a mite of difficulty, even though
she catches well the pensive moments as well as the gloriously
convulsive ones. Lili Boulanger’s Nocturne shows that she learned
as much from Debussy as she did from Fauré. I’m afraid,
though, that we have another duo that feels the need to give us
some Piazzolla; I like Milonga sin palabras, it’s lyrical
and passionate but Le Grand Tango gives fatuousness a bad
name. Tsunoda’s Jota (they only play three of the Suite Populaire
Espagnole) is not over bowed, and not abrasive but her rubati
in Rachmaninov’s Vocalise are a little precious. She strays into
Marjorie Hayward territory in the geographical visit to Blighty,
Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes, in the arrangement by Roger
Quilter but this is very light fare indeed when judged against
Poulenc’s desperate Sonata and Corigliano’s clear eyed rhythmic
drive in his. Then there are the younger composers. Garrop’s isolated
movement is a scurrying moto perpetuo type affair with tone row
emphases and a tango let loose on the feast; Hindson drives motorically,
abrasive "death metal" influences (man, I’m too old
for death metal, whatever it is) and Greenbaum gives us stillness,
albeit with a certain restless feel to it. I liked Gordon Kerry’s
Dream and its evocation of things Eastern. I’d like to hear more
of him.
The notes by Anna Goldsworthy are invigorating
and full and I liked them. In truth I’ve no idea at whom this
disc is aimed but in the spirit of its compilation I hope its
appeal will be geographically widespread.
Jonathan Woolf
Miki Tsunoda (violin)