Josef Slavík (1806-1833)
Violin Concerto in F sharp minor (1823-24) rev. Módr
Violin Concerto in A minor (1832) rev. Dědeček
Capriccio in D major for solo violin (1824)
Introduction-Variations-Rondino, Op.1 (1820)
Polonaise in D major for piano (1828)
rec. 2011-19, Italy
Private release DVD [63]

The short-lived Bohemian virtuoso violinist Josef Slavík is the focus of this DVD. Slavík was a near-contemporary of another lauded virtuoso from the Czech lands, Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst, whose compositions have held a tentative place on the foothills of the repertoire, though sometimes more for the thrill of watching a player attempt to surmount their Alpine difficulties than for their intrinsic musical value. Slavík hasn’t fared nearly so well. His Concertos are compact at around 15 minutes and bristle with Paganinian technical hurdles and his other surviving works are really too few in number to have encouraged much beyond the odd appearance in a compilation disc. Shizuka Ishikawa is one of the few to have recorded one of the major works, the Concerto No.2 in A minor, with Zdeněk Košler on Supraphon, and the ever-inventive Pavel Šporcl has more recently recorded the Caprice in D major on Hänssler. His disc includes Paganini, Ernst as well as Slavík amongst others. Other than these, there’s very little and you’d be doing well to source other examples of the Concerto No.2 (I don’t believe No.1 has ever been recorded commercially), though there are at least three, by Pavel Eret on a Radioservis CD, Boris Gutnikov on LP and Alexander Ploček on 78s. This DVD represents the first time these concertos have been performed together.

In any case, this DVD includes both concertos and two other major violin-and-piano works finishing with the Polonaise in D major, his only solo piano work.  His work list numbers around 23 but not all have survived – at least two string quartets, for example, have been lost – so apart from a Grand Potpourri in E major, a Rondino and the Variations ‘Il Pirata’ on the G string (based on Bellini) the selection on this DVD includes most of his major pieces composed during his gruelling years of European touring, during which he left Chopin thunderstruck and earned dedications from Schubert.

The first thing to note is the variable nature of the filming of the concerts. The two single-movement Concertos were recorded in a live concert given during the Valpolicella Festival in 2011 in the imposing surroundings of the Villa Santa Sofia, Pedemonte with the excellent young Laura Marzadori, who was soon afterwards to be appointed concertmaster of the orchestra of La Scala, Milan. She appears a little tense during the opening orchestral introduction of No.1, holding the violin protectively under her chin and not by her side, but thereafter she plays with splendid assurance, meeting all the left and right hand demands of the music with total sang froid and stretches her legato with real elegance and eloquence. Clearly Slavík must have studied Paganini’s Caprices and put that experience to excellent use. Marzadori plays the cadenza of Vojtěch Frait. She has the score open in front of her but only as a necessary security as she doesn’t seem to need it.

For the Concerto in A minor she is now more comfortable and holds the violin by her side initially. This is a more overtly lyrical work, though equally compact at just under 15 minutes, and is heard in the revision/orchestration made by P Dědeček with a cadenza by Jaroslav Vaněček (when he recorded it in 1941 Ploček employed the cadenza by Páleníček). The demands on the soloist are no less here but lyric episodes allow a more equal balance of material. I must say that, once again, Marzadori proves equal to all such demands and is assisted by the attentive Marco Zuccarini who directs the Orchestra Città di Ferrara. Tempi throughout are apt and not forced.

The video work is rather homespun. There is only one camera and it’s clearly not on a tripod and its close-ups from a single point – somewhere in the stalls to the left of the stage – are at one stage, decidedly shaky. There is also a lot of ambient noise though certainly not enough to spoil the enjoyment of the performance.

The solo Caprice is played by Lucilla Mariotti in the Chiesa dei Servi, Lucca in another live concert. This time the camera is clearly on a tripod centrally focused so one’s eyes are on the soloist. The demands of the Caprice are incessant and Mariotti offers a fine, resourceful performance.  The third venue is the Palazzo Roverella, Ferrara, in which Christian Saccon (violin) and Massimiliano Génot (piano) present, in a stylish and elegant salon, an equally stylish performance of the Introduction-Variations-Rondino, Op.1 of 1820. Saccon looks a little like Ysaÿe, with a lick of hair over his forehead, fiddling with remarkable panache and persistence over the course of 21 pretty gruelling minutes, Génot accompanying faithfully. There are a couple of moments where there’s a jump cut, possibly to move the angle of the camera slightly or maybe to cover a retake, as this is not a public concert so far as I’m aware. I couldn’t see or hear an audience, and this is the best sounding concert of the three. As a pleasing envoi the pianist plays the Polonaise in D major for piano, a memento of Slavík’s friendship with Chopin, with whom he also performed in concert.  

Navigation is simple though you will have to navigate on a work-by-work basis. Gianluca La Villa has written the helpful booklet notes which are in Italian and English. Acknowledging the rather limited nature of the recordings – you must not think that this is a Brian Large production with all its financial and technical clout – this is a useful niche product for violin aficionados.  

Jonathan Woolf

Availability: Gianluca La Villa (email) Payment should be made by PayPal. €20 post/$GPN 17 post

Details
Laura Marzadori (violin)/Orchestra Città di Ferrara/Marco Zuccarini (concertos)
Lucilla Mariotti (violin) (Capriccio)
Christian Saccon (violin) and Massimiliano Génot (piano) (Introduction-Variations-Rondino)
Massimiliano Génot (piano) (Polonaise)

rec. 30 June 2011, Villa Santa Sofia, Pedemonte, Valpolicella Festival (concertos):  27 April 2019, Chiesa dei Servi, Lucca (Capriccio): Palazzo Roverella, Ferrara (Introduction-Variations-Rondino)
Video format: PAL 16:9 Audio format: mpeg stereop
No regional restriction codes – however, it’s possible that it may not be playable by purchasers in all countries