Joseph Achron

Admired by Schoenberg (who described him as ‘one of the most underestimated of modern composers’), Joseph Achron was a boundary defying violinist-composer of extraordinary gifts. He drew on his Jewish faith to profound effect, from the early influence of his cantor father to his enthusiastic championing of the Society for Jewish Folk Music (which did for Jewish music what Bartók did for Eastern European folk culture). It’s hardly surprising that much of Achron’s music is for violin—he was a consummate player himself and a prolific recitalist. But what’s striking is how varied and exploratory his output is, delighting in experimentation, as the wonderfully named Suite bizarre demonstrates, just as much as the direct emotionalism of his transcriptions of Hebraic melodies. Who better to present this music than two artists steeped in similar traditions to Achron: Hagai Shaham and Arnon Erez.

Siblings Gil and Orli Shahams’ new release 'Nigunim' is a wonderful and thought provoking offering of Hebrew melodies. Jewish folk music has always played an integral part in the Shaham’s life - as a small child, Gil fondly remembers hearing Achron’s Hebrew Melody being sung by his grandparents in Jerusalem. This music, more often than not, vividly evokes troubled origins, the music providing an escape of sorts and the violin the perfect voice which transcends the world from which they sprang. “One very powerful aspect of this music is its soulfulness”, Orli Shaham says; “Regardless of your background, I don’t think you can listen to it without feeling that connection”.

This release includes masterpieces by Ernest Bloch, Joseph Achron and Leo Zeitlin. They all started their musical lives as child prodigy violinists, as their idiomatic writing for the violin might suggest.

The centrepiece of the disc comes from the work sharing the album’s title Nigunim. Commissioned by Gil and Orli from Israeli composer Avner Dorman, it shares the universal appeal of the wordless melodies on which it was named. Unlike Bloch, Achron and Zeitlin, Dorman is a composer/pianist and this can be clearly heard in the equality he gives the piano in this engaging 4 movement violin sonata. “He has created a masterpiece and in my experience everybody who hears the piece falls in love with it – they’re electrified by it”, Gil explains. Indeed, when he performed the work, San Diego Today affirmed that “it was hard to miss [its] visceral excitement and structural elegance”, the Boston Globe admiring the “uncommonly intriguing sounds”.

John Williams is the only composer here who does not share the Shahams’ Jewish heritage, but his mastery in the score Schindler’s List is such that, according to Orli, in this piece “he has absolutely captured the feeling of ghetto life and what that looked like and how people interacted … the pieces included here are so authentic that they are a part of this tradition”.

Orli and Gil’s musical partnership is a lifelong one. The violinist recounts: “Orli and I used to play together at home when we were kids, but we didn’t give concerts together until we were in our 20s”. In addition to countless concert appearances, in the recording studio their collaborations include two previous Canary Classics recordings, The Prokofiev Album (CC02) and Mozart in Paris (CC01) and Dvorák for Two (Deutsche Grammophon).

The works on this album by Dmitri Shostakovich, Alfred Schnittke, Arvo Pärt, and Joseph Achron were all written amidst the tremendous social upheavals of the 20th century. However, no matter how turbulent, resigned, even angry some of these scores may seem, they each convey a sense of searching for faith – faith in God, faith in the human spirit, faith in art. The featured artists are the outstanding young Russian violinist Yevgeny Kutik, and the pianist Timothy Bazarth.

Alfred Schnittke was a bold experimenter, always pushing musical boundaries, and his Sonata No. 1 is one of his most expressive pieces. The Hebrew Lullaby and Hebrew Melody by Joseph Achron radiate tremendous emotional depth, and convey an intense feeling of longing and pain. Dmitri Shostakovich’s Violin Sonata is a monumental and challenging work that epitomizes the unbearable pressure and struggles he endured in the Soviet Union, whereas Arvo Pärt’s beautiful Spiegel im Spiegel exists on a plain of mystical and spiritual calm.

Yevgeny Kutik has been hailed for his dazzling command of the violin and its repertoire, as well as a communicative immediacy that harkens back to the legendary Romantic masters. Of his New York City orchestral debut, The New York Times wrote that his violin projected “an old-fashioned rhapsodic style, which was magnified by his rich, sweet tone.”

The present CD pays homage to the Italian great violinist Renato De Barbieri (Genova, 1920 – Trento, 1991), whose artistic life has regrettably been forgotten in these days. The careful digital remastering from the original LPs reveals the wholeness of his talent as virtuoso and performer. His gift is here enjoyable not only for works as Paganini’s Le Streghe and Ravel’s Tzigane but mainly also for twentieth century’s masterpiece Sonata n.1 per violino e pianoforte of Sergey Prokofiev.

Ingolf Turban commands a repertoire of works, some of which have rarely been performed on stage or on CD. This recital comprises masterpieces for solo violin and reflects Ingolf Turban´s special preferences for unusual musical works and programmes.