Shostakovich: Violin Sonata, Op. 134

“In a year already replete with Shostakovich recordings, this one deserves special mention. Ruth Palmer is a young British violinist who trained at the Royal College of Music. She organised this recording herself, arranging sponsorship and collaborating with Director Tim Meara on the half-hour film about Shostakovich, which comes on the accompanying DVD. There's a whiff of designer chic about the presentation, and none of it would be significant if the performances were not so outstanding. Palmer tears into the ferociously demanding First Concerto in a way that none of the other versions released this year can match for intensity or in the latter movements, for poetic grandeur - and with the Philharmonia clearly galvanised by her playing, the results are spine-tingling. The late Violin Sonata inhabits an even more inward-looking world than the concerto, but Palmer is equally assured here, too. Altogether this is one of the most impressive Shostakovich discs to have appeared during the centenary.” The Guardian, September 2006

“This Shostakovich performance is extremely impressive, the technical difficulties seemingly of no account, and the vast design of the final passacaglia compellingly sustained with playing that ranges from precise and delicate, through mysterious and poetic, to the highest degree of force and energy (in the two solo variations).” Gramophone Magazine, June 2008

“Composed in 1947, a year before the notorious Zhdanov condemnation of leading Soviet composers, Weinberg's works reflect an unsettling landscape manifested most obviously in the central section of the non-movement Fourth Sonata, the violin's fast and furious passage work fighting against brutal rhythmic patterns in the piano. Both Kolja Blacher and Jascha Nemstov are extremely persuasive advocates of the Weinberg, and their finely balanced recording makes one eager to hear them in the first two Sonatas.” BBC Music Magazine, Proms 2007 ****

“You'd have to be a die-hard purist not to appreciate the virtues of these two fascinating transcriptions. The Violin Sonata remains one of the Shostakovich's most uncompromising works… Recorded live at concerts given in Russia, Gidon Kremer and his marvellous Kremerata Baltica respond to the music with searing commitment, the audience remaining totally gripped throughout the performance. A similar degree of concentrated intensity is present in the Viola Sonata. Although Yuri Bashmet's tempo for the opening movement may seem too slow and indulgent for the composer's prescribed marking of Moderato, the conviction of the playing surmounts initial misgivings, as it does in the Adagio which emerges here as an incredibly moving farewell to life.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2006 *****