Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
Five pieces from The Gadfly (1955)
Viola Sonata (1975)
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
Suite Italienne
Aleksandr Glazunov (1865-1936)
Elégie
Duo Phoné
rec. 2023, Cavalli Musica Castrezzato, Brescia, Italy
Brilliant Classics 96874 [69]
A few weeks ago I reviewed a revelatory recital of Russian cello music given by Marie-Elizabeth Hecker and Martin Helmchen (Alpha 327, review). Here is an equally interesting disc of music for viola, at the heart of which is Shostakovich’s extraordinary, dark, self-referential and valedictory Viola Sonata. Violist Leonardo Taio and pianist Sofia Adinolfi of Duo Phoné wisely perhaps place the Sonata last and precede it with three works, another by Shostakovich and one each by Stravinsky and Glazunov.
First comes the arrangement by Vadim Borisovsky, the violist of the Beethoven Quartet, of Shostakovich’s music for The Gadfly. Five scenes are selected, nicely varied, without any obvious narrative thread or coherence, but with plenty of opportunity for Taio in particular to show his virtuosity. I loved his effortless handling of harmonics in the third movement ‘Sharmanka’, for example, and the sweep and grandeur both players bring to the opening Scene.
Stravinsky’s neoclassical Suite Italienne follows and receives an excellent performance in an arrangement based on the edition by Stravinsky’s duo partner, the violinist Samuel Dushkin. I last heard the piece when it was included in the Hecker and Helmchen recital. I enjoyed their performance but I found myself not just preferring the lighter timbre of the viola here but also the greater elegance and sense of gentle irony that Taio and Adinolfi bring to the work.
Apart from the Shostakovich Sonata, the only other original for Viola and Piano on the disc is Glazunov’s Elégie, at one time a recital favourite but now somewhat out of fashion. I thought it charming and poignant and I cannot imagine a more beautiful or apt tone than that which Taio produces in this performance, genuinely captivating.
Enjoyable though all of these pieces are, I found myself subconsciously anticipating the Viola Sonata even while listening to them. It does tends to lour over any recital programme it’s part of. My reaction when it was reached, therefore, was partly one of relief which only grew as I settled into what turned out to be a fine account, growing in strength as it proceeds. Taio and Adinolfi capture the austerity of Shostakovich’s mood very well in the first movement, Taio’s lines beautifully held like an audible expression of isolation. There’s a sense of expressivity being somehow held back, too, which is both poignant and disturbing in this performance. The second movement in this interpretation is a deeply underlined contrast to what has gone before, appropriately infused with a sardonic wit by the players, and the element of the grotesque which occasionally surfaces is once more unsettling. The final movement is wonderfully played, without a hint of sentimentality, and Taio and Adinolfi avoid the obvious pointing, the audible quotation marks that some performers give to the references to the Moonlight Sonata and Shostakovich’s own works. The conclusion of the piece with the almost inaudible viola line is beautifully handled by Taio. It’s a performance of some quality.
As I alluded to above, the Viola Sonata can be a tricky piece to plan a recital around. It is so profoundly spiritual and emotionally exhausting that it’s difficult to find something suitable to follow it. And what goes before needs careful thought lest the whole endeavour is inadvertently travestied. I think Taio and Adinolfi have made a reasonable case here for their programming choices and there is no doubt of the quality of the performances of the individual pieces.
What are the alternatives? One is the Annette Bartholdy arrangement of the Shostakovich Cello Sonata. Although the two Sonatas are over 40 years apart there’s an undoubted affinity as well as some very marked contrasts and it works well on Bartholdy’s own recording with Julius Drake (Naxos 8557231). The recital by Pauline Sachse and Lauma Skride entitled Schwanengesänge (CAvi 8553371D) is the result of somewhat more lateral thinking, pairing Schubert’s Schwanengesäng with the Viola Sonata and actually interleaving the latter before ‘Die Taubenpost’. I thought I would have reservations not just about the juxtaposition but also the substitution of viola for voice in the Schubert, but in fact it works surprisingly well. There is an outstanding recording of the Sonata by Kim Kashkashian and Robert Levin on ECM New Series (1425), but although I admire the boldness of selection, I find the companion pieces by Linda Bouchard and Paul Seiko Chihara not especially memorable. My favourite recording of the Sonata, which Taio and Adinolfi don’t quite supplant, is the recital on Hyperion by Lawrence Power and Simon Crawford-Phillips (CDA67865). They also include the Borisovsky arrangement of The Gadfly but on their disc it comes directly after the Sonata, which requires some mental adjustment I found!
Overall, I enjoyed this new CD which has a nice balance and resonance in its recorded sound. Taio plays a lovely-sounding Aldo Capelli instrument, matched by Adinolfi’s very fine Kawai SK-EX. Taio also provides the thoughtful booklet notes. This is definitely worth seeking out.
Dominic Hartley
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