This
is rather an unusual souvenir of a
concert given at Castle Duivenvoorde
in the Netherlands in November 2004.
There are no notes regarding the music
though there is a biography of the
well-travelled violist. As a pendant
there’s also a performance of the
first movement of the amiable Casadesus
forgery (here still sporting its Handelian
camouflage) given by what I assume
is Zemtsov’s daughter, the then twelve-year-old
Dana.
Zemtsov
is the principal violist of the Residence
Orchestra in the Hague and also of
the New European Strings. His previous
positions as principal have taken
to Norway and Mexico and earlier still
he was a prizewinner in Vienna and
Hamburg. His programme is a demanding
one and also unusual in that the Rubinstein
sonata is followed by a series of
testing pieces, some of which are
new to me. The recording isn’t especially
helpful in that accentuates a clanginess
in the piano, hard, somewhat metallic,
and gives a bit of spread to the viola
sound. Still, Zemtsov is an assertive
deep toned violist who’s not afraid
to roughen that tone in the interests
of drama. The Rubinstein responds
quite well to this doughty approach,
especially in the Andante once past
a few pianistic problems, though some
of the passagework in the finale is
a bit effortful.
Radulescu’s
Sonata opens up interesting spatial
questions. The violist initially sounds
distant, then becomes progressively
more present. He explores register
changes, pizzicato passages and writes
quite strenuously for the solo viola,
though allowing motoric paragraphs.
The internal “dialogue” between registers
(at speed) is the most charismatic
moment an most attractively done by
the intrepid soloist. Kugel’s Prelude
Ysa˙e pays dramatic and insistent
homage and Evgeni Zemtsov (the violist’s
father?) has written an attractive
Melodia. The Kreisler is heard in
the viola transcription as is the
wrist dislocating Ernst, one of the
most merciless works in the violin
repertoire let alone in this viola
transcription by Kugel. In the circumstances
Zemtsov acquits himself well.
I
suspect this disc may prove rather
hard to track down. There are extraneous
noises and some odd balances throughout
but these are the invariable casualties
of a live recording. Zemtsov is a
bold player with wide interests in
the viola’s literature.
Jonathan
Woolf
Mikhail Zemtsov (viola)
