This brilliant program of
Dmitry Shostakovich's one and only violin sonatas with two of Mieczyslaw Weinberg's five violin sonatas would have been better served by better playing. Weinberg's sonatas, both from 1947, are tonal works of grave seriousness and solemn intensity, while
Shostakovich's sonata from 1968, although still basically tonal, pushes the limits both of tonality and expressivity. Together they make for fascinating comparisons and, if the performances had been better, they might have made for captivating listening. But while violinist
Kolja Blacher and pianist
Jascha Nemtsov are clearly dedicated to the music, and while their performances are entirely persuasive as long as the tempo is slow and the tessitura is low, when the tempos increase past Allegretto and the tessitura goes above the staff,
Blacher is not quite able to hit the notes or nail the intonation. So while most of the playing on this disc is more than acceptable, some of it is so shaky that it becomes hard to enjoy the music without an occasional cringe. But while
Shostakovich fans have many superlative recordings of his sonata to choose from, Weinberg aficionados have only one other antique and out-of-print recording of his sonatas, and this disc will for them perforce become obligatory, albeit not entirely convincing, listening. Hänssler's 2006 digital sound is clean, clear, and full of space.