Henriėtte Bosmans (1895-1952)
Violin Sonata (1918)
Arietta for violin and piano (1917)
Piano Trio (1921)
Solarek Piano Trio
rec. 2022, Arda Studio A, Porto, Portugal
TOCCATA CLASSICS TOCC0654 [55]
I have reviewed one recording devoted to the Dutch composer Henriėtte Bosmans (review) and it fortunately complements this Toccata release because it contains her Cello Sonata. It also contains the Arietta in a version for cello and piano. The disc under review – and I’m afraid it is going to be a short review, at the bare minimum specified by the editors – focuses on works written when Bosmans was in her early to mid-twenties, that’s to say 1917-21.
The Violin Sonata (1918) is a 26-minute, four-movement work heard in its premiere recording. It’s a deeply unbalanced affair with a 15-minute first movement eating up most time, from a stormy, stirring opening through some speculative and unconventional episodes cast in a broadly romantic cloak. The brief Scherzo is quixotic and shows promise, the slow movement sounds cultivated and expressive and there’s a fugal finale that trails away. Unfortunately, the acoustic is so boxy, dry and dead that it ruinously undercuts the hard-working pianist, Andrew Bottrill. Violinist Marina Solarek’s playing is unrelieved, without vibrance and sounds out of tune too often. The 1917 Arietta also goes for nothing, with Solarek failing to impress.
The Piano Trio of 1921 is another biggish work at 27 minutes. Here cellist Miriam Lowbury’s presence, to an extent, mitigates the imperfections of her string colleague. Nevertheless, this work, also heard in its first performance, can really only be taken on trust in this realization. There are cimbalom hints in the first movement but the slow movement sounds to my ears lacking in phrasal logic. I can imagine another ensemble making something of it, in particular its Spanishry. I’m afraid that by the finale - which starts promisingly with a wild skirl of a dance, but becomes less and less interesting, with moments of shaky ensemble - I had lost interest.
Disappointing.
Jonathan Woolf
Follow-up comment
In the time between me requesting
this for review and it making its way to New Zealand, Jonathan's review
appeared. I was, to say the least, disappointed and hoped I could say
something more positive about it, for the sake of the ever-enterprising
Toccata Classics, if nothing else. Sadly, I have to back up each one of
Jonathan's criticisms. The acoustics are terrible, the playing is not
good, and the tone of the violinist is painful. Perhaps there are some
qualities in the music not revealed here - and that is a big perhaps -
but I found it unlistenable.
David Barker
