- Mieczyslaw Weinberg
Sonatas for Solo Violin
After having largely contributed with his ensemble, Kremerata Baltica, to the rediscovery of Mieczyslaw Weinberg (1919-1996), Russian of Polish origin revealed by the film When the storks pass (Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1958), for which he composed the music, Gidon Kremer is working on it alone, today, with the violin sonatas. Torn between multiple aesthetic aspirations, these monologues perfectly illustrate Weinberg’s style, sublimation of the broken line (echo of a life that has been tragic over and over once more?). The Latvian violinist offers them in the reverse order of their chronology and he does well: we thus have the impression of going back in time. The Sonata No. 3 (1979), in one piece, is placed in the perspective of Johann Sebastian Bach and his mythical Chaconne, but it evokes a lot Alban Berg, by his tortured lyricism, and Dimitri Shostakovich, by his grimacing vagrancy. The n° 2 (1967), wanderer’s itinerary, and the n° 3 (1964), a tightrope walk, complete the triptych of a singular artist that Gidon Kremer defends, at the age of 75, with the power of conviction that we have known of him since his beginnings. Pierre Gervasoni
1 CD ECM New Series/Universal Music.
- Blandine Verlet
Complete Philips Recordings
Works by Bach, Scarlatti, Balbastre, Mozart, Chedeville, Duphly, Francoeur, Chabran, Mondonville, Leclair.
Decca conveniently remembered that the French harpsichordist Blandine Verlet, who died on December 30, 2018, would have been 80 years old in 2022. The one who preferred the company of men to that of Bach or Couperin leaves a first legacy at Philips as evidenced by the publication of this 14-disc box set (eight of which are unreleased), which brings together the engravings recorded from the 1970s until 1982. On the program, recitals Scarlatti (a summit), Balbastre and Duphly, but also youthful sonatas of Mozart with the violinist Gérard Poulet. Bach, of course, gets the lion’s share – “Playing Bach on the piano is not possible for me, and the organ is too close to God, so I am fine with the harpsichord. » Suites, toccatas and partitas, inventions and sinfoniabut also the Variations Goldbergand concertos, with Raymond Leppard and the English Chamber Orchestra, whose Four Harpsichords BWV 1065, alongside Philip Ledger and Andrew Davis. Without forgetting a testimony in studio of 1963: the Concerto for two keyboards BWV 1062, with his Italian master at the Chigiana Academy in Siena, Ruggero Gerlin. And always, this free and whimsical play, between tension and nonchalance, which makes this “unquiet” harpsichord recognizable among all. Marie Aude Roux
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