Dora Schwartzberg
is a well-known teacher, soloist and orchestral musician, originally
from Russia, but now living in Vienna. She is best known to
disc-buyers as a chamber music colleague of Martha Argerich
and others of the Martha Argerich Project, part of the Lugano
Festival. With members of the Project she has recorded the
Schumann Piano Quartet and Quintet for EMI and the Schumann
violin sonatas for the present label avanticlassics, of which
more later. She is heard again in Schumann’s Fantasiestücke
on this disc and in two of the most famous French violin sonatas.
The Schumann may
appear a little unfamiliar as music for violin. The Op. 73
pieces were originally written for clarinet and piano. They
have frequently been played on the cello, but this is the first
time that I have seen them for violin. No one is listed as
the transcriber here. The pieces do not play as well on the
violin as on the clarinet or cello and Schwartzberg’s rather
dragging style of playing does not help the illusion that these
are violin pieces. However, she plays the portamento passages
in a lovely way and has a feel for Schumann’s phrasing that
is quite felicitous. Ms. Argerich shows the nimble passagework
and fleet tempi that she always does in Schumann.
The dragging tendency
that I mentioned above also manifests itself at the beginning
of the Debussy sonata, but after a while Ms. Schwartzberg homes
in on the music to produce a performance that is a lot less
languorous than one frequently hears with this piece. The SACD
recording is just right for this and focuses the attention
even more strongly on the violinist’s excellent intonation.
The playing in the slow movement is even more precise and the
intonation equally good. At the same time Ms. Schwartzberg
negotiates each abrupt tempo change with great dexterity. The
last movement features a good deal of writing in the lower
register as did the Schumann transcription and Ms. Schwartzberg
is very comfortable with this aspect of the piece. Throughout
this movement and indeed the whole work she ties together a
work that can sound fragmented through well thought-out variations
of tempo and a consistent sense of forward motion. Overall,
an impressive performance.
Last month I reviewed
an older recording of the Franck sonata with Pierre Amoyal
and Pascal Rogé. It may be interesting to compare that performance
with the one on this disc. Both performances could be described
as warm, but not overly passionate. But where Amoyal seemed
concentrated on pace and motion, Schwartzberg is more concerned
with keeping the cyclic connections and transformations in
plain view while still maintaining as much forward drive as
possible. In the first movement of the Franck she is only partially
successful, but in the second movement this approach bears
fruit and this and the slow movements contain her best playing
on the disc. The playing is romantic without being too much
so. Ms. Argerich keeps up with her throughout and demonstrates
that even familiar music can be shown in a different light.
The two performers take the last movement at a faster tempo
than is usual, but make this emotionally convincing. The Franck
is the most interesting performance on the present disc and
shows Ms. Schwartzberg as a soloist of intensity and precision
if not always of the most searching musicianship.
The present label,
avanticlassics (one word, lower case), is a subgroup of the
Belgian label pure
music sprl. The label seeks two things: to promote appropriate
connections between artist and repertoire in their recordings
and to give those recordings the best sound that present-day
technology can supply. On this disc the recording team provides
a sound that while not warm or especially intimate, is so pure
that the listener is totally focused on the music itself and
the performance. This is just the right approach for Ms. Schwartzberg
and can also be found on her avanti disc of the Schumann violin
sonatas.
William Kreindler
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Dora Schwartzberg
(violin); Martha Argerich (piano) 
[53:54] 
