Pavel Šporcl has developed
something of a reputation as a Czech
Nigel Kennedy. Partly this is sartorial
– stubble, bandana, garish promotional
material – and partly repertorial in
that he has a wide-ranging interest
in music, including jazz. There are
other similarities; both trained at
home, Šporcl with the distinguished
Václav Snítil, and then
in America with Dorothy DeLay. Šporcl
has done some outstanding work in introducing
music to children in an intelligible
and exciting way. He has also honoured
standard repertoire
and many will know him from his performances
of the Dvořák concerto. To that
extent he is in the long line of Czech
violinists, of whom his teacher is a
notable example, but in his espousing
of the finger-busting Paganinian repertoire
he also recalls one of
the elite of his kind, Vaša Příhoda,
whose mastery of the national repertoire
was exceeded in reputation only by his
standing as a Paganini exponent.
Both players of course
are very different. Šporcl rather lacks
the older player’s outsize gestures
and coruscating incision; he’s a softer-grained
kind of violinist though his tone is
penetratingly pure and focused and not
at all fulsome. A rather unexpected
element of the programme is that he
plays a selection of the Caprices in
the Schumann piano arrangements. These
have long been ditched in the post-Ricci,
post-Rabin days of Paganini playing
on disc so it’s a jolt to encounter
them again. The Second could perhaps
do with a greater sense of projection
and might have been thrown off with
more panache, though maybe if he weren’t
shackled to the accompaniment he would
have done so. In the Fifth we can hear
his concentrated tone, precise, well
equalized. His lyric side comes out
in the little E minor Sonata though
I feel it’s just a touch brittle in
places. Le Streghe is a famous
test piece that he doesn’t quite meet
head on; there are static moments that
don’t convince but I warmed to his playing
of the Cantabile in D where he shows
some excellent work on the lower strings.
I Palpiti is
again warmly phrased after a fine piano
introduction from Petr Jiríkovský.
Šporcl’s rhythm is fine, he employs
plenty of tone colouration and there’s
abundant virtuosity; a good performance
all round. The only piece of non-Paganini
is David N Baker’s Ethnic Variations
on a Theme of Paganini. It was written
in 1983 and here receives its premiere
recording. Based on the famous 24th
Caprice and lasting eleven minutes this
is a jazz-based workout that offers
a pleasing diversion from the serious
business of keeping ones head above
the virtuosic waters.
The recording quality
is warm but not enveloping, whilst the
notes are keenly up to date in the best
Šporcl tradition. There’s some really
committed playing here, along with some
more fallible moments and the Schumann
editions add another layer of unpredictability
to the affair.
Jonathan Woolf
Pavel
Sporcl (violin) 
