MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW Plain text for smartphones & printers

Support us financially by purchasing
this through MusicWeb
for £12 postage paid world-wide.

Sergei PROKOFIEV (1891-1953)
Violin Sonata No. 1, Op. 80 (1946) [28.46]
Sonata for Two Violins, Op. 56 (1932) [14.41]
Violin Sonata No. 2, Op. 94bis (1944) [24.13]
Five Melodies for violin and piano, Op. 35bis (1925) [12.44]
Natalia Lomeiko (violin); Yuri Zhislin (violin, Op. 56); Olga Sitkovetsky (piano)
rec. April 2012, Wyastone Concert Hall, Wyastone Leys, Monmouth; May 2012, Henry Wood Hall, London (Op. 56)
ATOLL ACD513 [68.04 + 12.44]

It would have been good had Atoll managed to get this quartet of Prokofiev violin pieces onto a single disc. Running for 80:54 it was just too long for its capacity, it would appear, though other labels can happily fit 84 or so minutes to a disc. Fortunately this doesn’t affect its price bracket.

These are elegant, refined performances, recorded in 2012 in two locations and make for a logical succession of works. Natalia Lomeiko has enlisted Yuri Zhislin – not tricky, as he’s her husband – to play the Sonata for two violins which is the work that tends to be overlooked when recording the Prokofiev violin-and-piano repertoire, for obvious reasons. Elegant and refined, yes, but also lacking some of those qualities of graphic intensity that one finds in other performances. I liked the approach of Lomeiko and Olga Sitkovetsky to the F minor sonata but the wind-over-the-graveyard passage in its opening movement is lacking in eeriness; try Vadim Repin and Boris Berezovsky on Erato [0630-10698-2; also boxed set], for example, to hear how ghostly, evanescent and quicksilver this can truly sound. That astonishing moment in the Allegro brusco when Prokofiev moves from fractious tension to an outpouring of sudden, brisk lyricism is all the more startling – indeed astonishing – when played as abruptly as it is by Repin. That’s not to diminish admiration for the highly musical performance on Atoll – even as I wish the dynamic range of the performance could have been more marked. Repin and Berezovsky dare some extremely terraced dynamics.

These elements - phrasing, tonal colour, range of sound – are true of the Sonata in D. Here, Lomeiko maintains tonal body even in alt and her playing is very persuasive in all except the finale, which I find a bit stodgy. Repin and Berezovsky’s con brio is much more vital. The Sonata for two violins plays to the strengths of Lomeiko and Zhislin – matched vibratos, seamless phrasing, and excellent dovetailing. This is a subtle, stylish performance. The Five Melodies are fresh and lyrical though again the competing Erato duo reveals gradations of wit and tonal allure that the Atoll team cannot quite match.

The recordings were made at Wyastone Leys and – in the case of the Sonata for two violins - Henry Wood Hall in London. The notes are skimpy.

Jonathan Woolf

Previous review: Michael Cookson



 

 



Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing