Ida Haendel, Vladimir Ashkenazy. Karol Szymanowski: Mythes op. 30, George Enescu: Violin Sonata No. 3 op. 25, Bela Bartok: First Rhapsody, Romanian Folkdances. Bonus CD 460 658-2: Beethoven Violin Sonata No. 3 op. 30/3, Schubert: Sonatina D408, Szymanowski: Notturno e Tarantella op. 28, Roxane’s Song from King Roger, Bartok: Romanian Folkdances, Encores by Brahms-Hochstein, Kreisler, Sarasate, Achron-Auer, Wieniawski, Albéniz-Kreisler, Falla-Kreisler. 2 CDs Decca 455 488-2 (2000) barcode 028945548821
Recorded 18 March (Szymanowski), 20-21 August 1996 (Enesco, Bartok) in Konzertsaal, Stadthaus Winterhur, Germany
Bonus CD (dating from Philip Stuart’s Decca Discography). All recorded at West Hampstead Studios, London
Brahms-Hochstein Waltz op. 39/15, Sarasate Zapateado Op. 23/2, Kreisler Tambourin chinois op. 3, Schön Rosmarin (Adela Kotowska) 9 August and 10 September 1940
Beethoven (Noel Mewton-Wood) 18 February 1941
Albéniz-Kreisler Malagueña op. 71/6 (Noel Mewton-Wood) 2 April 1941
Schubert Sonatina op. 137/3 D408 (Adelina Kotowska) 8 September 1941, 2 April and 8 October 1942
Wieniawki Scherzo Tarantelle (Adelina Kotowska) 8 September 1941 & 8 April 1942
Falla-Kreisler Danza No. 1 from La Vida breve (Adela Kotowska) 22 April & 8 October 1942
Achron-Auer Hebrew Melody op. 33 (Alice Haendel) 26 October and 8 December 1942
Szymanowski-Kochański Roxana’s Song from King Roger (Adela Kotowska) 2 March 1946
Szymanowki Nocturne and Tarantella (Adela Kotowska) 15 October 1946
Bartok-Székely Romanian Folk Dances (Ivor Newton) 15 September 1947
Haendel and Ashkenazy a mismatch, and the early recordings show how much the fiddler had lost 50 years later
Originally posted on Amazon.com, 26 April 2008
As the liner notes reminisce, Ida Haendel can claim a special legitimacy in Enescu’s Sonata, as she was a student of the composer in Paris and played the composition for him. As partnered here by Ashkenazy in 1996, her timings in the first two movements are within average, sitting comfortably between the composer himself (with Dinu Lipatti in 1943, on Philips’ “Legendary Classics” collection, 426 100-2 barcode 028942610026) or his pupils Christian Ferras (1962, collected in “Les Introuvables De Christian Ferras”, 5 CDs EMI 5 74872 2, link will open new tab to my review) and Yehudi Menuhin (in 1936 on EMI Références 5 65962 2 with works of Szymanowski, Prokofiev, Ravel, and in 1966 in “West Meets East” with music of Ravi Shankar, reissued in 1999 by a label called Beat Goes On Records, BGOCD445) on the one hand (although in his first recording Menuhin does take a broader approach of the slow movement), and André Gertler (1962, now on Supraphon 11 1814-2 911 with works of Darius Milhaud) or the more recent Sherban Lupu (ca. 1985, Continuum CCD 1003, no barcode, review pending), Laurent Korcia (“Tzigane”, 1999, RCA Red Seal 74321 690862 barcode 743216908622, with works of Bartok, Bloch, Ravel and Janacek, review pending), Mihaela Martin (2000, on BIS-CD-1216 barcode 7318590012161 with Enescu’ Second Violin sonata and his magnificent Suite for Violin and Piano “Impressions d’enfance”, review pending) or Leonidas Kavakos (2002, ECM New Series 1824 with “Impressions d’enfance” and Ravel’s Tzigane). Only in the finale is she overall among the broadest versions. But what jumps immediately to the ear is that Ashkenazy is given a rather too forward placement and sounds so assertive as to be somewhat overbearing, and a little heavy-handed as well, lacking the rhapsodic freedom that the music calls for. Ashkenazy has contributed superb recordings of Bartok’s and Prokofiev’s Piano Concertos, but the problem is that he seems to be approaching the piano writing of Enescu as if it were the Hungarian’s or the Russian’s: muscular, percussive, savage. Maybe Enescu requires less percussive glare and more subtle colors. Or maybe it would have taken a fiddler with a more ample sound than Haendel. Her phrasings are idiomatic enough, but as recorded by Decca, her tone sounds wirier and more pinched than on her 1980 live concert released on Doremi Legendary Treasures DHR-7756. The recording also picks up her heavy breathing. The Doremi recording also has its sonic and interpretive problem, but overall it offers a better representation of the violinist in this work.
Although I have a number of recordings I do not have the score to Szymanowski’s mesmerizing quasi-Sonata, Mythes op. 30, so my comments will be more tentative, but I was shocked by Ashkenazy’s racing into the first piece, “the Fountain of Arethusa”, as if trying to beat some speed record. A sense of suffocating urgency is created, but subtlety, sensuousness and mystery are lost. The two next pieces of the triptych seemed less objectionable, but I’ll come back and complete this review as soon as I receive the score, which I’ve ordered.
This set includes a welcome bonus disc with a collectionof early recordings made by Haendel for Decca between 1940 to 1947. Besides the customary “encores” and other such short trifles, which Haendel plays with chic and zest (including a dazzling Zapateado), the substantial pieces are Beethoven’s 3rd Sonata (op. 30/3), performed with Noel Mewton-Wood in a very lively and jaunty manner, Schubert’s Sonatina D. 408 and Szymanowski’s Notturno and Tarantella op. 28 (both with pianist Adela Kotowska – the original record of the Szymanowski sounds pretty worn, unfortunately). It is also nice to have Haendel’s early take (from 1947) on the same Romanian Folkdances of Bartok/Szekely (with pianist Ivor Newton) which she has re-recorded here with Askhenazy. The comparison is not always favorable to the new recording. Haendel’s tone is coarser, and while the two last pieces do benefit from the boisterousness conveyed by Ashkenazy’s pounding approach (the same is true in the first Rhapsody, despite Haendel’s unseductively pinched tone), overall the earlier version flows more naturally. There is something to be said in favor of the intensity with which the later Haendel charges the 4th piece, Danse of Buchumi – at 2:04, compared to the 1:35 of the first version, not so much a Dance as a desperate lament. But the nostalgic hues the younger Haendel finds to the second piece, Sash Dance, are quite unique. And while the later Haendel brings an eerie atmosphere to the whistling harmonics of the 3rd piece (In One Spot), the earlier recording also shows the advantage for the piano NOT to assert itself as such but to try and pass off for a cimbalom – and young Haendel’s harmonics are purer, too. Too bad Bloch’s Abodah, recorded in that era and mentioned in the liner notes, hasn’t been added, as well as its original discmate, Dinicu’s famous Hora Staccato – according to Philip Stuart’s authoritative Decca discography, they’ve never been reissued from their 78rmp form. But beware, the transfers are not up to the best standards of today, and on most of the pieces there is quite a lot of surface noise.
Fine liner notes, with presentation of the works included in the modern recital, and two informative essays on Haendel and Enescu and the history of these early Decca recordings. But the 1996 recital is disappointing. Is that why it wasn’t released until 2000?