Sarasate: Virtuoso Works for Violin, Carmen Fantasy, Zapateado

Review By all accounts, Pablo de Sarasate must have been quite spectacular. One of the post-Paganini European virtuosi of the late 1800s, he dazzled audiences, critics and contemporaries alike, and not just with his playing. Like several of his fellow violinists - Vieuxtemps and Wieniawski in particular - Sarasate produced many outstanding compositions, and their warmth and brilliance is testimony to his playing ability. Gil Shaham took the opportunity afforded by the centenary of Sarasate's death in 2008 to present several concert performances of his works, culminating in the Sarasateada festival in Valladolid, Spain, last November. This latest CD on Shaham's own Canary Classics label was recorded at the festival, and also features Shaham's wife, the Australian violinist Adele Anthony. Ysaÿe noted that it was Sarasate "who taught us how to play exactly", and precision is certainly the first requirement if these pieces are going to be performed successfully. No worries here on that score. Shaham is brilliant in the four live orchestral performances with the Orquesta Sinfonica de Castilla y Leon under Alejandro Posada: the Carmen Fantasy; Zigeunerweisen; a somewhat bland Leo Blech orchestration of Zortica; and - with Anthony - the scintillating duet Navarra. Anthony plays three of the eight outstanding tracks with pianist Akira Eguchi - Song of the Nightingale; Airs Ecossais; and Introduction and Tarantella - and certainly isn't `second fiddle' here in any respect. Shaham's solo tracks are Habanera, Zapateado, Romanza Andaluza, Capricho Vasco, and Gavota de Mignon, and his playing standard never waivers. Both players use a Stradivarius violin - Shaham the 1699 "Countess Polignac" and Anthony a 1728 instrument - and their richness in the lower register and brightness in the upper, while possibly more contrasted in Shaham's playing, are very similar. The booklet notes are by the always-reliable Eric Wen and nicely complement this delightful disc. -- Whole Note, Terry Robbins, November 26, 2009 Gil Shaham and his wife, Adele Anthony, played last month at the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra's season-opening gala. He gave a knockout performance of Sarasate's "Carmen" Fantasy, and as an encore, they gave a performance of Sarasate's "Navarra" for Two Violins that was lightning-quick and electrifying. Their personalities, like their Stradivarius violins, seem widely different. Anthony has a quiet humor. And Shaham radiates a crazy, manic humor, which seems to have taken him over just in the past few years. (I love that. It's rare that you get to see a musician evolving before your very eyes.) The contrasts add excitement to this CD, issued on the couple's independent label. Anthony solos for three numbers, Shaham takes seven, and they finally join for that "Navarra." Highlights include Anthony's whistly take on the "Song of the Nightingale"--uncannily birdlike--and Shaham's sizzling trips through hot Spanish dances like the "Habanera" and the "Zapateado." Lots of fun and fire. -- The Buffalo News, Mary Kunz Goldman, October 18, 2009 Gil Shaham's performances of Sarasate's music (televised in PBS's "At the Penthouse" series--Shaham's performance from November 2008) and his appearances at the ¡Sarasateada! in Valladolid 2008 should perhaps have led listeners to expect this program of Sarasate on Shaham's label, Canary. The Carmen Fantasy, Zortzico, Zigeunerweisen, and Navarra, with orchestra, all come from live performances at the 2008 festival, and he also recorded the other pieces, with piano, at Valladolid. In the Carmen Fantasy, Shaham offers a hot-blooded brand of Sarasateana, with headlong, impassioned virtuosity (and only occasionally grinding in the double-stops and chords) that may not recall the Sarasate either of the descriptions of his playing or of the recordings from 1904 (he'd recorded Zigeunerweisen on a cylinder in 1898), which, in any case, would be hard to imitate. Shaham includes in the mix a few compositions that may be less familiar to general listeners, such as the Song of the Nightingale, which, though as Eric Wen remarks may not be fraught with virtuosic hurdles, still sounds characteristic of the composer's violinistic style, with pervasive harmonics. In this case, as in Hubay's Zephyr, they frequently provide highlights to the tops of passages, although they carry the thematic material itself on occasion; Shaham plays them with easy grace. Ruggiero Ricci, Dynamic 94, didn't impart to them the same silvery purity, though his trills approach birdsong closer than do Shaham's. He returns to familiar territory in the Habanera, which he sets on fire with the glowing G string of this 1699 Polignac Stradivari and by means of frequent, heady changes of tempo. He makes use of rhetorical pauses, as he did in his televised performance of Zapateado, which he plays in Canary's program with enough gusto to prevent changing tempos from sounding fussy, and to render the sections in harmonics and pizzicato
ASIN: B002JP9HWG
VSKU: DBV.B002JP9HWG.G
Condition: Good
Author/Artist:Pablo de Sarasate|Alejandro Posada|Orquesta Sinf nica de Castilla y Le n|Gil Shaham|Adele Anthony|Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León|Akira Eguchi
Binding: Audio cd
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Condition Notes: Individually inspected: Guaranteed to play perfectly or your money back. Case may show wear and may be in library packaging. Ships Fast!