Politkovsky died too
young. He was born in 1932 and came
from a musical and theatrical family.
He studied with Yankelevich just after
the War and then, from 1950, with Oistrakh.
As with so many Soviet violinists he
entered a number of competitions and
was a laureate at all of them. Despite
the fact that he performed far and wide
and was a strong adherent of the core
repertory he recorded rather less often
that some of his contemporaries. He
certainly didn’t propagate, on disc
at least, the kind of adventurous repertoire
that, say, Eduard Grach did. In addition
to the two major native works in this
disc – the Taneyev and Rubinstein sonatas
- the only recorded examples of significant
Russian repertoire that I’ve been able
to trace is Grechaninov’s Op.87 sonata
along with one or two vignette pieces.
Of other large-scale works he recorded
the Respighi B minor and – the only
concerto I can find – the Bach Double
with fellow fiddle player Yashvili.
So this major player
has a rather frustrating discography,
which makes the appearance of this disc
in RCD’s ‘Russian Violin School’ line
all the more welcome. The Rubinstein
sonata is the Op.13 not the Op.19 and
so less well known perhaps. It asks
for some strenuous playing especially
in the opening movement where the passagework
difficulties are at a premium. The restless
Moderato second movement is richly characterised
by Politkovsky and Epstein, his piano
colleague, and they do well by the rapid
exuberance of the Scherzo. The finale
opens mordantly but the subsequent lyric
passages are a delight, and though still
tied to the troublesome introspection
of the opening bars, the sonata ends
in a flourish. To all of these moods
and reflections the two players respond
with immediacy and strength.
The Taneyev is a standby
for Russian players; Western players
have seldom really taken it up. You
must ignore the track listing which
has gone terribly wrong. The sonata
is supposed to be tracked 7-10 but it’s
actually 9-12 and you will have to note
further that track 11 is the so-called
‘Gypsy Song’ and not the Rachmaninoff
and so on. These things do happen sometimes.
Once more the violinist is teamed with
Epstein. This is a high pressure and
fast reading. It makes for rather startling
contrast with the 1975 recording of
the same work in the same series by
violinist Grigory Feigin and Victor
Poltoratsky [RCD 16253]. Politkovsky
drives through it with greater tensile
weight and a rather more ‘high wire’
tonal reserves. This metallic tension
lends the work a different patina; less
late Brahmsian, more nervy, quicksilver,
considerably more insistent. The smaller
pieces are enjoyable examples of the
violinist moving in morceaux circles.
There are plenty of lyric episodes in
the Balakirev, the Tchaikovsky is stoic,
quite brisk and unsentimental
and the Dvořák-Kreisler subject
to some hammy rewriting.
There are some rewarding
examples of Igor Politkovsky’s art in
this disc.
Jonathan Woolf
Igor Politkovsky (violin) 
