Khandoshkin usually receives a respectful paragraph
in standard violin histories. As the first Russian violinist-composer
in St Petersburg’s Imperial Court he gave native musicians the
hope that they too could rise to eminence in a field dominated
by Italian and French imports. His high technical skill and obvious
mastery of certain techniques – rather paraded in his solo violin
works – gained him renown, though it’s clear from the Italianate
slant of his compositions that he had absorbed many pertinent
lessons from such as Tartini.
And yet one must also
look to C.P.E. Bach, as the notes suggest, for a wider appreciation
of the influences he took and processed; also, I would suggest,
J.S. Bach as well. In the G minor solo sonata the level of accomplishment
is decidedly high and the technical demands incessant. He was
particularly fond of arpeggiated writing which, accompanied by
a battery of ostinati and quadruple stopping (unnecessarily complicated
one would have thought unless it was to parade his own command),
gives the sonata a dramatic and tensile quality. The quality one
is left with, above these and other features, is however the ornamental
one. He was over-fond of decorative curlicues that give the music
a rather frivolously clotted feel; mitigated it’s true by his
quixotic theme lengths. The up and down staccati of the finale
are more decorative than solidly musical, even though they must
have aroused considerable enthusiasm at court.
The E flat major sonata
is less of a show-piece, though the decorative writing is again
a constant feature. The most consistently impressive of the movements
is the finale with its bluntly accented rhythms, which generate
a fine Russian dance drive. In the Minuet of the D major we find
a rather vocalised kind of melodic line, very attractive, and
some fine noble phrasing amidst the virtuosic flair that informs
it. He certainly had a flair for dramatic characterisation as
the finale of this sonata demonstrates. Soloist Anastasia Khitruk
varies her dynamics here to fine effect.
For the Six Old Russian
Songs she is joined in the first by the viola and for the remainder
by the cello. They’re strongly tinged by folk influence and are
simple in melodic outline. As ever Khandoshkin gives vent to his
penchant for over-decorative gilding but the ebullience and feeling
can’t be denied. I was most taken by the melancholy of the third
song Little dove why do you sit so sadly? which brings
out the best in the composer, forcing him to limit excessive ornamentation.
The performances are
excellent. Khitruk has the measure of this demanding music and
plays it with panache.
Jonathan Woolf
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Solo Violin Music of Ivan Khandoshkin
by Anastasia Khitruk
Anastasia Khitruk
(violin) 
