Ustvolskaya Violin Sonata Duet Sorkin Andreeva
USTVOLSKAYA
Violin Sonata. Duet for Violin and Piano
Evgeny
Sorkin (vn); Natalia Andreeva (pn)
DIVINE
ART 25182 (49:19)
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This release is entitled Galina Ustvolskaya: Complete Works for Violin and Piano, but that
turns out to be just two works, both fairly early. Fortunately, they are both
substantial—though this is still a short disc—and typical of her austere “desk
drawer” style. The Violin Sonata dates from 1952 and the Duet for Violin and
Piano from 1964. By 1952, Ustvolskaya was already writing music without much
rhythm, or rather, as the liner notes describe, music in 1/4 where there are no
weak beats, just a succession of equally stressed quarter notes. The Duet is
more varied, its seven movements embracing more varied textures and tempos, and
even if the overall mood remains somber, the musical language becomes more
varied, with violin harmonics adding an icy sheen to the still insistent piano
lines.
The recording project was initiated by pianist Natalia
Andreeva, who recently released a two-disc set of Ustvolskaya’s solo piano
works on the same label (251 30). Here, she is joined by fellow Russian and
fellow Australia resident Evgeny Sorkin, the recording made in July 2018 at the
Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where Andreeva teaches. The liner notes are by
Andreeva herself and give an idiosyncratic picture of the composer, though an
informed one—Andreeva’s Ph.D. thesis is on Ustvolskaya’s piano music. She
discusses some textual issues (apparently the published editions vary from
Ustvolskaya’s manuscripts, which Andreeva has consulted at the Paul Sacher
Stiftung) before going on to some imaginative readings of the music itself. For
Andreeva, the sonata speaks of the Stalinist terror and includes highly veiled
allusions to chorales and church bells. The Duet is described as a dramatic
dialogue between the two players, its “plot” traced by name ciphers so obscure
that even Andreeva herself cannot identify them, although she adds that they
are only of interest to the performers anyway.
Given this detailed exegesis, it is surprising how
objective and dispassionate the readings are. The recording acoustic is very
dry, which only adds to that sense of detachment. Fortunately, the approach
feels very much in tune with Ustvolskaya’s uncompromising aesthetic. The
performers rarely exaggerate the dynamic extremes—and there are plenty of
dynamic extremes notated in the scores—and seem as concerned with maintaining
tight ensemble and careful balances as with exploiting the music’s
Expressionist drama. Sorkin plays with a controlled vibrato, which adds color,
but without tipping the music over into overtly Romantic expression. And the
fact that Andreeva is the guiding force behind the project is apparent from the
amount of detail and commitment in the piano playing, to the extent that the
piano often becomes the center of attention.
The two works here
are available in several other recordings, all fairly recent. A 2017 release
from Melodiya (99122) includes the sonata, played by Mikhail Waiman and Maria
Karandashova, but is let down by a poorly tuned and dreadfully recorded piano.
Also from 2017 (though apparently a remaster), a recording of the Duet by Vera
Beths and Reinbert de Leeuw, offers atmosphere, intrigue, and menace.
Similarly, the ECM version from 2014, with Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Markus Hinterhäuser,
is a highly characterful and compelling account. In many ways, it is at the
other end of the spectrum from Sorkin and Andreeva, with the violinist
dominating, putting across a huge amount of personality, and all in a warm,
enveloping ECM sound envelope. Sorkin and Andreeva give an account that needs a
little more empathy from the listener, but which remains involving. We might
argue that the more nuanced and underinflected playing here is more in the
composer’s spirit, but Beths and de Leeuw would still be my first choice.
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