Various Composers - Violin Recital [Oistrakh /Zertsalova] 

I remember buying this disc in a second hand record shop in London, it was priced £4, and i was debating buying it or not, i eventually decided it was worth it, and i'm glad i did, it's been played fairly regularly since, plus it contains some music i don't have elsewhere, the Schumann Fantasy is a real treat, and the Waxman is a bit of a rarity, all told it's a well chosen programme, and since the demise of the Collins Classical label, it's now hard to find this disc. 

Igor Oistrakh is a Ukrainian Violinist, he is now 81, of course his Father is the famous David Oistrakh, and they certainly look similar, he made this recording in 1989, the front cover picture [by R Carpenter Turner] is an excellent shot of Oistrakh and his Wife Zertsalova, a nice dark background, and dark clothing, makes the duo really stand out, showing both the violin and the piano, the lettering is excellently laid out also, well composed visually.

I very much enjoyed this recital, i switched the disc onto random play, and it's good to get whatever comes next, like i said above, i thoroughly enjoyed the Schumann Fantasy, just the sort of thing that Schumann is renowned for, but it was the Paganini piece that just so melts, it truly is a phenomenal creation, lasting barely over 4 minutes, it really packs a punch, probably the best thing Paganini ever did, i don't care for his Violin Concertos, nor his 24 Caprices, but in one fell swoop this piece redeems him, and secures his reputation, the whole this is based on the most sweetest of violin melodies, the piano is merely there to keep a rhythmic flow, and wow what a melody! [0:00-0:55], it could easily be the vocal line for a great song, Schubert would have been proud of, it rises and falls, but there's a section where the music comes to a penultimate heartache [1:16-1:45], and it's the high treble it reaches that is so wonderful [1:40], and the corresponding section a little while later [2:16-2:36], surprisingly the coda comes in with more than a minute left [2:52+], and it's so heartbreakingly beautiful, you don't ever want it to end, there's even a short little cadenza [3:39-3:56], it's a perfect miniature, seems to have everything, some of the best creations are micro pieces. 

Here's Sarah Chang playing the Paganini Cantabile on YouTube.

Various Composers - Violin Encores [Vengerov/Brown]

A good selection of Violin & Piano pieces, some virtuosic, some lyrical, some long, some short, a good mix, and Vengerov has a certain way with the violin, an exuberance, maybe a showy style to some degree, he's quite a 'jester of the violin', i love these 'encore' albums, short pieces that fill a void, and it's so good to have a nice selection of different Composers with different ideas, it's like a musical buffet!, so many good things to choose from, last year i enjoyed another of these discs with Vengerov [28th June 2010], i like that one even more, a better selection of pieces.

Maxim Vengerov is Russian, lately he seems to have stepped out of the recording spotlight, maybe to concentrate on other things, he's now 37, still young for a superstar Violinist, he recorded this disc in 2004.

I guess i gravitate towards the shorter pieces on this disc, the longer pieces outstay their welcome to some degree, and i certainly enjoyed tracks 2-3 & 6-8, with track 2 the gorgeous Paganini Cantabile towering head and shoulders above everything else, Paganini certainly isn't a Composer that i shine to, i don't like his Violin Concertos, and his 24 Caprices are mere exercises to me, but this is a little gem tucked away in his oeuvre, it's short at under 4 minutes, it's a gorgeous tune, the piano is reduced to a true accompaniment, there's this gentle rolling of a hypnotic beat from the piano, but it's the violin that takes centre stage, Vengerov's violin yearns and serenades at the same time, there's a superb zenith of emotion reached fairly early on [1:17-1:26], with the penultimate high treble sweetly hitting the dizzying heights of ecstasy at [1:23], that really hits my soul, what a perfect moment, it even comes with a nice coda, which slows things down to a close [2:34+], and even a little cadenza at the end!, it's like a mini-Concerto!.

Here's Vengerov playing the Cantabile by Paganini on YouTube.

Various Composers - Popular Violin Encores [Chang/Abramovich] 

First of all, just a word about the cover, i didn't like the original cover that this came with, so i cut a picture from the front cover of a magazine [BBC Music Magazine - February 2004], rubbed some transfer lettering on it, and hey presto!, a really nice cover [it was originally called 'Simply Sarah'], but it's the music on the disc that's so good and varied, it's one of those discs, that even though it has 14 different Composers on it, there still feels this idea that they all belong together, there's this coherence here.

Sarah Chang is of course a violin superstar now, she finally hit her thirties, and shrugged off the child prodigy, she actually made this album in 1996 when she was still 15, my self made booklet cover is a close-cropped photo of Sarah in a thoughtful pose.

Well i found this so inspirational, it's full of lots of my favourites, one Encore after another i was thrilled, my favourite tracks were 1-2, 6 & 11-12, here's a short summary of each piece,

1 Bazzini - Dance Of The Goblins, a piece of sheer virtuoso brilliance, very fast playing by Chang [0:37-0:41], nice whoops of high sharp singing notes, and pizzicato strums too [2:22-2:43], and impossibly high notes [3:49-4:01], with a stunning bravura finale to it.
2 Paganini - Cantibile, the opposite of the first piece, sweetly lyrical, inflamed and impassioned, it's probably my most favourite encore, the sweeping flow of the piece right from the start is so compelling, and the sheer intensity of feeling that she generates at its climax [1:00-1:29], just an achingly stunning piece. 
6 Dinicu - Hora Staccato, a lovely agitated piece, it has a gypsy feel to it, lots of fast bowing, 'wrong' out of tune notes [0:33-1:06], especially by the piano [1:26-1:37], it's really short at under 2 minutes, and the ending is so inspired, very much an anti-climax on a soft yet abrupt pizzicato note, and yet so perfectly ends the piece on a nice controversy.
11 Gluck - Melodie, another highly inspired lyrical piece, much like the earlier Paganini Cantibile, it's also known as 'Dance of the Blessed Spirits', this is a mournful lament, with superb aching and longing [0:53+], long legato lines, a nice singing tone from Chang, there's moments of pure regret [2:07+], it's sad but makes me happy!.
12 Kroll - Banjo and Fiddle, an upbeat piece, the key is in its title, it switches from pizzicato 'banjo' to bowing 'fiddle', constantly going back and forth, and it certainly has humour too [2:17-2:25], with what sounds like a nice laugh at the end.
This is one of the very best violin and piano encore discs that i own.