Annar Folleso is a Norwegian talent of terrific intensity, a pupil of Mauricio Fuks at Indiana University, as well as a protégé of Gyogy Sebok. His interpretation of the Bartok Solo Sonata has already garnered some accolades. The Solo Sonata was commissioned by Yehudi Menuhin, who knew of Bartok’s profound capacity to fuse Bach with Magyar folk elements. Unhappy with the writing for quarter-tones in the finale, Menuhin sought Bartok’s permission to make revisions, but the composer died of leukemia before a final decision had been made, and Menuhin’s published edition only presumes the composer’s approval. Violinist Follesco (2003) gobbles up all of the towering obstacles, including the quarter-tone passagework of this monumental piece in one fell swoop. The opening Chaconne and ensuing, fierce Fuga dazzle with their austere and savage power. If the Fuga looks back to the Allegro barbaro, the Melodia achieves something of the purity of a Bach sarabande. Its mesto character allies it with the Sixth String Quartet. Harmonics have rarely received such loving attention. The Presto is a little dynamo of energy, a volatile display of the violin’s capacity to create a panoply of color from shifts of registration and bowing techniques, especially effective in surround sound.
The 1922 Sonata No. 2 is just as punishing in its own way, set in two distinct sections as a kind of homage to Liszt. The influence of Stravinsky and Schoenberg makes its way into the sparse textures, which suddenly clash in nightmarishly symmetrical fancy. The use of tritones has become a convention for Bartok, again a legacy of Liszt. Pianist Hadland, considered the natural heir to the mantle of Leif Ove Andnes, provides pungent support from the keyboard. Hothouse passion permeates this realization of Bartok’s dense score. The Allegretto section, opening by pitting pizzicati and staccati, as well as contrasting spatial acoustics. If your head isn’t sawed off by the pitched battle of the two principals, you will find an eerie beauty in all this, culminating in a C Major that claims to be the only reality worth holding onto.
Norwegian clarinet virtuoso Bjorn Nyman joins Folleso and Hadland for the jazzy Contrasts (1939), commissioned by Joseph Szigeti as a piece to play with Benny Goodman. The work indeed is a study in contrasts, differing timbres, musical idioms, moods, tempos, and harmonic sensibilities. The Verbunkos (Recruiting Dance) has a mesmerizing affect, as it was meant to seduce young men into Austro-Hungarian military service. Piheno (Relaxation) was added by Bartok as an afterthought to his two-movement Rhapsody incarnation for this piece; it is a haunting nocturne with little, interruptive riffs, bird calls, frog gurgles and night sounds. The clarinet in surround sound comes out of left field. The Sebes (Fast Dance) opens with violin chords stolen from Saint-Saens‚ Danse macabre, then the Magyar-jazzy hootenanny is on full tide. The second, scordatura (re-tuned) violin makes some striking points in diminished fifths and tritones. Given the Northern sensibilities of our three performers, they have adapted to Bartok’s idiom with an intensity hard to imagine, much less actualize as incisively as 2L has done here.
— Gary Lemco
