It is good to hear
again from Yuri Zhislin who won the
1993 BBC Radio 2 Young Musician of the
Year competition. He was born in 1974
and studied violin at Moscow's Gnessin
School. Both Zhislin and George-Emmanuel
Lazaridis appear to be in their element
in these two hyper-romantic pieces.
The Strauss is
a work of surging tempestuous pathos.
The writing has Brahmsian passion with
only the merest hint of the capricious
Strauss to come. At the time of its
writing he was deep in the full score
of his tone poem Macbeth; Don
Juan was in the offing. It is in
much the same spirit as the Violin Concerto
which I heard recently in the 1970s
EMI recording by Ulf Hoelscher as part
of the Brilliant Classics Kempe collection
and some years ago with Sarah Chang
again on EMI Classics. The finale
is at first morose but soon attains
considerable grandeur. The heroic songful
manner soon returns unleashed in joy
with some gorgeous lyrical outpourings
as at 3:27 in the finale.
The Cello Sonata of
Rachmaninov is here heard as
a Viola Sonata and why not? We have
heard the Elgar Cello Concerto as a
Viola Concerto in the Tertis transcription
(Conifer). As note writer Christopher
Morley points out, the Sonata shares
much material with Rachmaninov's Second
Piano Concerto. This is first heard
at the heart of the first movement at
3:31. The allegro scherzando begins
with gothic echoes of Die Erlkönig,
returning to romantic piano concerto
mode at 1:02. The andante is
similarly linked with that piano
concerto in the contour and rise and
fall of its themes. The lanky muscular
finale is alive with majestic and triumphant
urgency which is well put across by
Lazaridis and Zhislin although I do
hanker, in the homeric flourishes of
the first part, for a closer balance
for the viola. The piano writing sounds
orchestral - it would not take a great
leap of the imagination to hear this
sonata as a concerto. I wonder if it
has ever been presented as a Cello Concerto!
I'd like to know.
After such derring-do
we can be pleased to have the soothing
Vocalise in yet another arrangement
- how many have there been. Zhislin
here pays touching attention to dynamics.
We should remind ourselves that the
Vocalise is the 14th of Rachmaninov's
op. 34 songs originally for vocalising
soprano. It was in that form dedicated
to Antonina Nezhdanova. The Zhislin
arrangement is for violin, viola and
piano and where the two instruments
play together there is a potent emotional
charge.
Zhislin is thankfully
sturdy of tone and has ample reserves
of virtuosity on which he draws in these
two high water marks of romanticism.
Comparisons are inapt.
There’s no similar coupling. The viola
transcription makes the Rachmaninov
unique. As for the Strauss it is a rare
piece. As I recall, Chang drew fuller
tone from her violin than Zhislin whose
violin has a more slender febrile voice.
It is good that Somm have supported
Zhislin and Lazaridis in this way. We
can only enjoy the superb musicianship
to be heard here and hope for more.
Rob Barnett
see also review
by Jonathan Woolf
Yuri Zhislin (violin; viola) 
