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Track(s) taken from CDA67703

Nocturne and Tarantella, Op 28

composer
1915

Alina Ibragimova (violin), Cédric Tiberghien (piano)
Recording details: July 2008
Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk, United Kingdom
Produced by Andrew Keener
Engineered by David Hinitt
Release date: May 2009
Total duration: 11 minutes 40 seconds

Cover artwork: Water Nymph (detail) by Otto Theodor Gustav Lingner (1856-1917)
Private Collection / Agra Art, Warsaw / Bridgeman Images
 

Other recordings available for download

Tamsin Waley-Cohen (violin), Huw Watkins (piano)

Reviews

‘Ibragimova and Tiberghien make a winning combination, both in the sweltering sensuality of the central works and in the more conventional late-Romantic effulgence of the warm-hearted Sonata of 1909 … this repertoire should be high on the priority list of all those interested in 20th-century violin music, and it's not easy to imagine a stronger case being made for it than here’ (Gramophone)

‘[I would] recommend Alina Ibragimova with pianist Cédric Tiberghien as prime representatives of the numinous in Szymanowski's violin chamber repertoire’ (Gramophone)

‘This is a performance that shows Ibragimova's art at her remarkable best; at one moment poised, the next playing with abandon, she is one of the most expressive violinists around’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘Ibragimova and Tiberghien produce beautifully characterised accounts, whether in the veiled contours of the Nocturne and the explosion of rhythmic energy that follows it in the Tarantella, or in the refined exoticism of Mythes, with its strange mixture of classical evocation and sensuous indulgence’ (The Guardian)

‘We are living in a Second Golden Age of violinists, but even in the context of Hilary Hahn, Leila Josefowitz and Julia Fischer, Alina Ibragimova is an astonishing talent … technically the playing is superb. Intonation is exceptional, and Ibragimova's timbral range—from the coarse to the silken, from the richly throbbing to the chastely disembodied—seems unlimited. The music is studded with challenges … she tosses it all off with self-confident authority … Cédric Tiberghien, with whom Ibragimova has played often, offers a real partnership rather than mere support … this is a major release’ (International Record Review)

‘Ibragimova's stunningly potent technique—the stuff of legend even in the close scrutiny of the digital age—is soon forgotten in a sensuous croon through which the more extravagantly impossible the violinistic hurdles, the more ecstatically glorious her tone becomes. Indeed, hurdles do not exist for her, and the usual descriptive and critical terms are useless, if only because they suggest comparison with other artists suddenly dwarfed by the incomparable. Such phrases as 'a tonal palette ranging from guttural coruscation to the most brilliantly glowing scintillance' simply will not do. There is a touch of the uncanny here, even a suggestion of the human voice—as of whispers, sighs, moans, wailing—in which the notes dissolve into a direct spiritual prehension. Ibragimova does not play or perform—she utterly possesses’ (Fanfare, USA)

‘The early violin sonata is especially fine, as are the little-known Paganini caprices’ (The Evening Standard)

‘The beautiful 24-year-old Russian violinist Alina Ibragimova teams with French pianist Cedric Tiberghien to prove that Szymanowski's violin music is the most impressive of his chamber music, especially the Scriabinesque Violin Sonata in D-minor Op 9. An exceptional disc’ (The Buffalo News, USA)
The Nocturne and Tarantella Op 28 was composed in the same year as Mythes, 1915. The Nocturne shares initial ground with Mythes before breaking into spasmodic bursts of Hispanic dance. It has been plausibly suggested by Alistair Wightman that the composer’s constant preoccupation with dance may have related to his physical disability; certainly dance surfaces intermittently in virtually all the major works of Szymanowski’s transitional middle period. The Nocturne attenuates to an enervated conclusion before the febrile onset of the Tarantella, where the distance covered by Szymanowski since the generically comparable Violin Sonata’s finale is immediately apparent. The music oddly combines maniacal rhythmic insistence with the kind of Pierrot-like neurasthenia associated with Debussy’s Cello Sonata. Its strangely unplaceable, yet constantly allusive style is reminiscent also in a general way of Busoni, not least through the final, apparently mischievous nod at convention in an unambiguous ‘perfect’ cadence. A natural—if sophisticated—crowd-pleaser, the work was later orchestrated by Grzegorz Fitelberg.

from notes by Francis Pott © 2009

Comme Mythes, les Nocturne et Tarentelle op. 28 datent de 1915. D’abord fondé sur la même base que Mythes, le Nocturne se lance dans de spasmodiques bouffées de danse hispanique. Alistair Wightman a émis la convaincante hypothèse selon laquelle ce serait son handicap physique qui aurait poussé Szymanowski à constamment s’intéresser à la danse; et de fait, cette dernière affleure dans presque toutes les grandes œuvres de sa période centrale transitoire. Le Nocturne s’atténue jusqu’à une conclusion amollie avant le fébrile démarrage de la Tarentelle, où l’on perçoit d’emblée le chemin parcouru depuis le finale de la Sonate pour violon, génériquement comparable. La musique est un curieux mélange entre insistance rythmique maniaque et neurasthénie à la Pierrot associée à la Sonate pour violoncelle debussyste. Son style étrangement singulier, mais constamment allusif, rappelle aussi Busoni, surtout par l’ultime et, semble-t-il, malicieux clin d’œil aux conventions: une cadence «parfaite» sans équivoque. Cette œuvre naturellement «démagogique»—quoique sophistiquée—sera orchestrée par Grzegorz Fitelberg.

extrait des notes rédigées par Francis Pott © 2009
Français: Hypérion

Nocturne und Tarantella op. 28 entstanden im selben Jahr wie die Mythen, nämlich 1915. Das Nocturne fängt zunächst ähnlich wie die Mythen an, bevor es in konvulsivische Ausbrüche hispanischer Tänze ausbricht. Alistair Wightman hat die plausible These aufgestellt, dass das fortwährende Sich-Beschäftigen mit dem Tanz mit der körperlichen Behinderung des Komponisten zusammengehangen haben könnte. Tänze kommen jedenfalls in praktisch allen Werken der mittleren Schaffensperiode Szymanowskis vor. Das Nocturne schwächt gegen Ende hin ab, bevor die Tarantella fieberhaft beginnt, wodurch die Entfernung, die Szymanowski seit dem generisch vergleichbaren Finale der Violinsonate zurückgelegt hat, sofort deutlich wird. In der Musik werden ein besessenes rhythmisches Insistieren mit einer Pierrot-artigen Nervenschwäche kombiniert, die an Debussys Cellosonate erinnert. Dieser eigenartige, unbestimmbare Stil, der doch voller Anspielungen steckt, erinnert allgemein an Busoni, nicht zuletzt im Finale, was mit einer eindeutig „authentischen“ Kadenz schelmisch konventionell ist. Das Stück hat eine populäre—wenn auch anspruchsvolle—Anlage und wurde später von Grzegorz Fitelberg orchestriert.

aus dem Begleittext von Francis Pott © 2009
Deutsch: Viola Scheffel

Other albums featuring this work

Szymanowski & Hahn: Violin Sonatas
Studio Master: SIGCD432Download onlyStudio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
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