Isabelle Faust & Ewa Kupiec - Bartók: Sonates Pour Violon (1997)

Posted By: SERTiL

Isabelle Faust & Ewa Kupiec - Bartók: Sonates Pour Violon
EAC Rip | FLAC (tracks)+cue, log, m3u, front cover | 68:51 min | 252 MB
Label: Harmonia Mundi - HMN 911623 | Tracks: 07 | Rls.date: 1997
Classical

Since this recording was made in 1997, Isabelle Faust has built a name for herself as one of Europe's prominent violinists. The release shows she was outstanding from the very beginning. Together with pianist Ewa Kupiek, she has recorded the best Bela Bartok 1st violin & piano sonata I know. They try to get inside the notes, and re-create Bartok's living, breathing conception, with musicality and willingness to take risks. Faust and Kupiek create different sounds to conjure a palette of sounds; they play with tempi; they interject dramatic pauses. It's a vivid interpretation, as well as being technically accomplished. Be aware that this piece is for experienced classical fans, as the 1st sonata is probably the single most difficult of Bartok's works to absorb and understand, with three extended, almost atonal movements, characterized by very low levels of repetition. I have other recordings of the work by Isaac Stern/Yefim Bronfman (Stern has intonation issues and hasn't practiced enough, but an interesting interpretation, even so) and Midori/Robert MacDonald (a bland, disappointing take that is not up to their usual standards) and think Faust is the best of them.

Faust pairs the 1st violin sonata with the later solo violin sonata, dating from 1944, when the composer was sick with leukemia and living in Manhattan. The solo sonata is a problematic piece to evaluate. On the one hand, I am very familiar with the conventions of modern music and the tradition of solo violin music tracing back to Bach. In this context, I hear an ambitious solo effort by Bartok, with an interesting and generally successful opening Chaconne and Fugue followed by a dull slow movement and not very taking finale. Switching mental frames, I approach the solo sonata as a listener who doesn't much care about Bartok or Bach or modernism, but just wants to hear attractive or affecting music. In that second frame, the solo sonata fails: it's not pretty, it's overlong, it seems self-absorbed in an uncommunicative way. For me, the piece is almost like one of those doors in Harry Potter that open both ways into the normal world and the world of wizards, like a hinge between aesthetic mindsets. In terms of performance, Faust is terrific. The solo sonata is very difficult, and she meets the challenge with very good intonation and a sense of fluency.

Recorded sound is very good. A generally excellent release, in whatever way I approach the solo sonata. By jt52

TRACKLIST
1 Sonate pour violon seul, Sz. 117: I. Tempo di Ciaccona 11:42
2 Sonate pour violon seul, Sz. 117: II. Fuga 5:03
3 Sonate pour violon seul, Sz. 117: III. Melodia 8:27
4 Sonate pour violon seul, Sz. 117: IV. Presto 5:59
5 Sonate pour violon et piano nº I, Sz. 75: I. Allegro appassionato 14:24
6 Sonate pour violon et piano nº I, Sz. 75: II. Adagio 12:48
7 Sonate pour violon et piano nº I, Sz. 75: III. Allegro 10:32

PERSONNEL
Isabelle Faust - violin (tracks 1–7)
Ewa Kupiec - piano (tracks 5–7)

Exact Audio Copy V1.3 from 2. September 2016

EAC extraction logfile from 18. April 2017, 21:32

Faust, Isabelle - violin; Ewa Kupiec - piano / Bartók, Béla - Violin Sonatas cd1

Used drive : hp DVD-RAM GH82N Adapter: 1 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 667
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\foobar2000\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "PERFORMER=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%–tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" %source% -o %dest%


TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 11:42.20 | 0 | 52669
2 | 11:42.20 | 5:02.40 | 52670 | 75359
3 | 16:44.60 | 8:26.50 | 75360 | 113359
4 | 25:11.35 | 5:59.05 | 113360 | 140289
5 | 31:10.40 | 14:23.67 | 140290 | 205081
6 | 45:34.32 | 12:47.70 | 205082 | 262676
7 | 58:22.27 | 10:32.05 | 262677 | 310081


Track 1

Filename C:\!Apollo\01 - Sonata for solo violin in G minor, Sz 117 - I. Tempo di Ciaccona.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00

Peak level 37.7 %
Extraction speed 2.2 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 1681BAE2
Copy CRC 1681BAE2
Accurately ripped (confidence 5) [333F09E7] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 2

Filename C:\!Apollo\02 - Sonata for solo violin in G minor, Sz 117 - II. Fuga.wav

Peak level 29.7 %
Extraction speed 2.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC AA9EA771
Copy CRC AA9EA771
Accurately ripped (confidence 5) [A9BF8D4C] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 3

Filename C:\!Apollo\03 - Sonata for solo violin in G minor, Sz 117 - III. Melodia.wav

Peak level 12.9 %
Extraction speed 2.8 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 451F8E36
Copy CRC 451F8E36
Accurately ripped (confidence 5) [1317CA00] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 4

Filename C:\!Apollo\04 - Sonata for solo violin in G minor, Sz 117 - IV. Presto.wav

Peak level 33.4 %
Extraction speed 3.0 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 3B133FF8
Copy CRC 3B133FF8
Accurately ripped (confidence 5) [8CD0072D] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 5

Filename C:\!Apollo\05 - Sonata for violin and piano no.1, Sz 75 - I. Allegro appassionato.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:09.20

Peak level 95.1 %
Extraction speed 3.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 5330A1F5
Copy CRC 5330A1F5
Accurately ripped (confidence 5) [C91613DC] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 6

Filename C:\!Apollo\06 - Sonata for violin and piano no.1, Sz 75 - II. Adagio.wav

Peak level 54.2 %
Extraction speed 3.7 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 8A59D373
Copy CRC 8A59D373
Accurately ripped (confidence 5) [C89D1BB7] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 7

Filename C:\!Apollo\07 - Sonata for violin and piano no.1, Sz 75 - III. Allegro.wav

Peak level 88.5 %
Extraction speed 4.2 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 6D7D167E
Copy CRC 6D7D167E
Accurately ripped (confidence 5) [66F0F7D3] (AR v2)
Copy OK


All tracks accurately ripped

No errors occurred

End of status report

–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.6

[CTDB TOCID: lNkotw48cEab4Z7NzzgzkCCqMq8-] found
Submit result: lNkotw48cEab4Z7NzzgzkCCqMq8- has been confirmed
Track | CTDB Status
1 | (32/32) Accurately ripped
2 | (32/32) Accurately ripped
3 | (32/32) Accurately ripped
4 | (32/32) Accurately ripped
5 | (32/32) Accurately ripped
6 | (32/32) Accurately ripped
7 | (32/32) Accurately ripped


==== Log checksum 323F404E0A40DF410FDF6A61F9CD62AFFFB5B5B1AB02750E9940E285CD1B6B4E ====


Thanks to the Original customer.