BEETHOVEN: Violin Sonata No. 9 in A Major, Op. 47 “Kreutzer”; Violin Sonata No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 12, No. 3 – Viktoria Mullova, violin/Kristian Bezuidenhout, fortepiano – Onyx 4050, 54:34 [Distr. by Harmonia mundi] ****:
In deference to something like “authentic instruments,” Viktoria Mullova and pianist Kristian Bezuidenhout have resorted to an 1822 Anton Walter and Sohn keyboard instrument and a Guadagnini violin–gut-strung and pitched at A=430 while Mullova employs a light bow–to recreate the expressive range and timbre of Beethoven’s own time. The immediate effect in the 1797 E-flat Major Sonata is to project a raspier, edgier patina–than in the product of a Steinway/Stradivari collaborations–in the gritty fast passages while maintaining a velvety legato in the arioso passages. Mullova’s violin tone is thin and reedy, her vibrato quite fast, and her attacks pungent. The piano sound decays quickly, given the leather-covered hammers, but the textures emerge in transparent harmony. Still, the natural buoyancy of the music proceeds in good humor, from the very outset of the Allegro con spirito. The C Major Adagio turns inward, a serene moment of intimacy made exotic by the timbre of the period instruments. The bass tones in the keyboard rather grumble, but only in the service of rending the high arioso of the violin more pronounced. The last movement, a sparkling Rondo, pairs the two instruments in happy colloquy, a lithe and jocular intensity in loving ensemble.
Few works for violin and piano allow the special tones of Mullova’s instrument and the striking timbre of the fortepiano to resonate with such vehement power as Beethoven’s 1803 Kreutzer Sonata. From the opening solo–adagio sostenuto–and keyboard entrance, the music finds itself propelled by an almost hallucinatory fire, a tempest of concertante impulses that well insinuate moments of a larger concerto. Mullova’s rasping manic strokes and wicked repeated notes, Presto in A Minor, suddenly break off for the lyrical counter theme, whose nervous existence explodes in another flurry of extreme agitation and resolute willpower. Mullova adds cadenza ornaments ad libitum. Bezuidenhout’s roiling bass tones add much to the oceanic energies of this demonic movement, a collaboration of unearthly luster.
The F Major Andante theme and variations carries the percussive quality of the keyboard forward, especially staccato, against the relatively subdued colors from Mullova, although her injections of sforzati manage to invade any sense of complacency. Edgy beauty in variation three, a mono mode variant of eerie hue and sudden urges of those passions Tolstoy found disturbing and immortalized in his novella. On the other hand, the fourth variant, pearls of light and air, daintily cavorts in plastic harmony in staccato runs and pizzicato punctuations, with detache bowing from Mullova. The longest variation, the fifth, often has the keyboard’s imitating a harp or guitar, and the ensuing duo plays as a luxuriant troubadour’s song. The Presto opens with the famous A Major chord to burst in to a lively tarantella which here sizzles in rollicking collaboration, the suspensions and accents in unleashed frolic. The entire sonata has offered us delirious joy and unbridled passion in a concerted mix that Beethoven himself could sustain or equal only in supreme moments in his orchestral works, oratorios, and occasionally in his one opera. Heartily recommended.
–Gary Lemco
