Artur Lemba (1885-1963)
Chamber Music Volume 1
Rudolf Palm, Triin Ruubel, Hugo Schüts (violin)
Margarethe Kruus, Sten Lassmann, Artur Lemba (piano)
rec. 1928 (Poème d’amour); 1960, (Sonatina); 2024, Grand Hall of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, Tallinn
Toccata Classics TOCC0753 [64]

The music of Estonian composer and pianist Artur Lemba has made tentative appearances on disc recently. His Piano Concerto, for instance, appeared on Chandos, and it remains one of his most popular works, along with the salon charmer, Poème d’amour which makes two appearances in the first volume of Toccata’s chamber music series, one a historic recording from 1928. But there is something of a dearth of recordings of the music of the first Estonian to compose an opera, in 1905, and the first symphony in 1908. Will this volume help to change things?

I suspect not. Lemba was a mellifluous craftsman but in the case of these violin works not a memorable lyricist. The Violin Sonatina No.1, composed in 1954 when he was in his late 60s, offers three characterful and charming slices of warmth – a Prelude with baroque hints, a songful Canzonetta and a rustic dance – but nothing more substantial. Charm seems to be its raison d’être and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. There’s a second recording of it, a fine performance taken from the radio archives, performed in 1960 by Rudolf Palm (violin) and Lemba himself, who’s somewhat distantly balanced in the studio.

The two Violin Sonatas here date from 1931 and 1947. The first has a forceful quality that embraces romanticism and bravura, elements that permeated the Piano Concerto. Here, too, there’s a fusion of folklore and bombast added to which Lemba requires the violinist often to play in the higher registers so that the writing sounds more vehement. The central movement has a lullaby feel and a yearning quality which is attractive, as is the folk dance in the B section. If you like a perpetuum mobile you’ll enjoy the exciting one Lemba writes in the finale. The Second Sonata is cast along the lines of the Kreutzer Sonata. It has an opening movement of long-breathed ease reminiscent of Grieg in places – gently nationalist at a dangerous time – followed by a Theme and variations. They’re prettily organised and dotted with elegance but, like the music of his contemporary, Heino Eller, Lemba’s violin music stays stubbornly on the side of ‘attractive’ not distinctive. The finale exemplifies the well-written but occasionally anonymous nature of Lemba’s inspiration.

The little salon pieces include two undated ones – a smoothly lulling Berceuse and a Mazurka, as well as the Poème d’amour. The 1928 version is played by Hugo Schüts (violin) and Margarethe Kruus (piano).  It’s good to read a little about them in the booklet but, greedily perhaps, I’d have liked information on the recording company for which this was made and its catalogue number. Schüts’ stylish phrasing of this little piece is accompanied by a very nervous vibrato and it’s very different to contemporary playing but is possibly closer to the way Lemba expected it to be played.

Needless to say, Triin Ruubel plays it most attractively as she does the remainder of the programme. She forms a fine, stylish partnership with Sten Lassmann and treats the music with discretion and deftness. Lemba could have no finer ambassadors for his music for violin and piano.

Lassmann’s booklet notes are first class and so is the recording. I wish I could find the music more exciting and less inclined to the generic but maybe you’ll disagree.

Jonathan Woolf 

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Contents
Violin Sonatina No.1 (Suite) (1954) – two versions, one recorded in 1960
Violin Sonata No.1 (1931)
Berceuse
Mazurka
Poème d’amour (1916) – two versions, one recorded in 1928
Violin Sonata No.2 (1947)