In the days when the BBC often rebroadcast historic material
from its archives we could hope to catch recitals from stalwarts
of the airwaves from at least the 1960s and 70s. Now, those days
long gone, and with its own label and an eye for international
sales, figures such as Campoli tend to be overlooked. Yet I remember,
indeed taped, a fine 1970 Campoli broadcast with Valerie Tryon
of sonatas by Debussy, Respighi and Turina No.2 when it was re-aired
a number of years ago. Doubtless there will be numerous other
preserved recitals in the archives but it’s not easy to
see how they will ever be accessed, much less made commercially
available.
Which makes a new disc such as this all the more welcome. Make
no mistake; Campoli was a significant violinist, a bel canto
lyricist with a big tone and hugely expressive intentions. His
command in the big concertos was unquestioned - Mendelssohn,
Bruch, Elgar - and he sought out contemporary or near-contemporary
material if it suited him, such as the concertos of Bliss and
Moeran. But there are gaps in his discography and thankfully
this release consists of entirely discography-filling material,
none having been recorded commercially. All see him paired with
Peter Katin, with whom he had earlier formed a sonata duo.
There are two locations. The first was a recital given at the
Fairfield Hall, Croydon in c.1972 and consisted of the sonatas
of Mozart and Beethoven. The recorded sound is excellent. Mozart’s
sonata in A K526, is a study in bold, communicative warmth and
strong romantic gestures. Lyric lines are elastic but not over
extended, accents are strong but not tart, and tonal reserves
are plumbed deeply. The Beethoven sonata offers a powerfully
manoeuvred opening movement and a typically limpid and reverent
Andante
cantabile. Tone colours are bronzed and Campoli unravels
the line like an aria. Sinewy exchanges pursue the scherzo, alternating
with light wit before the
attaca of the finale where Campoli
stalks forth with panache. Katin was a generation younger than
Campoli - nearly twenty five years younger in fact. He is of
course better known as a concerto soloist and recitalist and
very much less so as a duo partner. But he is a poised and communicative
collaborator, rhythmically alert and sensitive, weighting his
sound with great discretion. Their teaming works extremely well.
For the Brahms Op.108 sonata we turn to a performance recorded
in the violinist’s home by Geoffrey Terry, whose company
is behind the release. Of course the sound doesn’t - and
it could hardly be expected to - match the excellent ‘recital’ perspective
achieved in Croydon. It’s invariably shallower and boxier
but to hear Campoli and Katin in this work is recompense enough.
Digital slips are very few and whilst the full panoply of Campoli’s
tone resists capture we can learn some important things about
his approach to this work. Tempi are broadly conventional but
with a characteristically slow
Adagio, which I admit I
was expecting. Here his vibrato widens dramatically and he vests
his playing with a grieving intensity and sentiment. It’s
playing far removed from that of, say, Szigeti, Suk or Shumsky
in this repertoire but then their imperatives were different.
Katin plays with sympathetic attention to detail and if he would
prefer a faster tempo he doesn’t reveal his hand to us.
There’s a perky but not aggressive
scherzo and a
strong, tensile finale.
A warm welcome therefore to this disc, which offers considerable
rarity value to the violin aficionado.
Jonathan Woolf
Alfredo Campoli (violin) 
