Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
29	30	1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	31	1	2

Steinberg Duo - Reizenstein, Bush & Ireland: Sonatas for Violin & Piano (2017)

Posted By: delpotro

Date: 26 Feb 2018 08:29:28

This triptych of British violin sonatas bears a wartime theme. Ireland’s A minor famously elevated his name to prestige on its 1917 premiere, whereas the sonatas by Geoffrey Bush - this is its premiere recording - and Franz Reizenstein date from 1945.

Lyrita has an older recording of the Ireland in its catalogue, by Yfrah Neaman and Eric Parkin, now handily contained in an all-Ireland chamber music box (SRCD.2271). This newcomer does not in any way replicate the rather excessive breadth of that disc. The Steinberg Duo prefers tempos that more approximate those of the composer himself, whose unequalled 1930 recording with dedicatee Albert Sammons, which was never issued at the time, is on Dutton. Louisa Stonehill‘s focused, slim tone is well varied, and she utilises portamenti with stylish and stylistically apt discretion. At the vivid tempo adopted, the music’s structure is never in danger of failing, though one could perhaps wish for more of a sense of quasi-improvisation in the slow movement, where the phrasing could be freer. If her tone sounds pinched now and again, the recording or balance may have something to do with it, as Nicholas Burns’s passionate pianism sometimes covers Stonehill’s more reserved, smaller-scaled playing. The finale suffers somewhat from a lack of tonal weight from the violinist.

Cast in one movement, the 18-minute sonata by Bush has hardly ever been performed. Its sense of chromatic flux is attractive and so too is its ripe lyricism. Its unsettled, constantly flitting nature is underpinned by taut rhythm and the slow material is full of pathos. A little festive, fresh-faced dance section announces the “finale” in delightful fashion. The nervous nature of the work is very well brought out.

Possibly Reizenstein’s best-known violin work is the 1939 Prologue, Variations and Finale, recorded shortly thereafter by Max Rostal and the composer, and once more to be found on a generous Dutton CD. It is a more unsettled work by far than Bush’s more quiescent one. Its emotive states journey from a taut terseness reminiscent of Hindemith to a more explicit lyric vein. If there are hints of Shostakovich in the fast central movement, it is because of the percussive drama of the writing, and not least the violin’s furtive song set against the piano’s more combative persona. The misterioso finale is well conveyed in this performance. The violin’s grave musing alternates with more sinewy writing; this quasi-impressionist element is highly effective.

Notwithstanding certain reservations regarding the balance, and aspects of the performances, this is an interesting CD with pertinent notes written by the pianist. Personally, I would have preferred a work contemporary with the two 1945 sonatas, given there are numerous examples of the Ireland available on disc.

Tracklist:
Violin Sonata in G-Sharp Major, Op. 20 (Franz Reizenstein)
1 I. Tranquillo
2 II. Allegro, ma non troppo
3 III. Finale. Misteriso. Allegro risoluto

4 Violin Sonata (Geoffrey Bush)

Violin Sonata No. 2 in A Minor (John Ireland)
5 I. Allegro
6 II. Poco lento quasi adagio
7 III. In tempo moderato. Con brio

EAC

Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011

EAC extraction logfile from 18. February 2018, 11:57

Reizenstein - Bush - Ireland / Violin Sontatas

Used drive : hp DVD A DH16ACSHR Adapter: 0 ID: 0

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

Read offset correction : 6
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)\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -6 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" -T "BAND=%albuminterpret%" -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%–tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" %hascover%–picture="%coverfile%"%hascover% %source% -o %dest%

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 10:03.57 | 0 | 45281
2 | 10:03.57 | 4:35.29 | 45282 | 65935
3 | 14:39.11 | 9:35.60 | 65936 | 109120
4 | 24:14.71 | 18:31.22 | 109121 | 192467
5 | 42:46.18 | 9:47.49 | 192468 | 236541
6 | 52:33.67 | 9:01.70 | 236542 | 277186
7 | 61:35.62 | 6:56.11 | 277187 | 308397

Track 1

Filename J:\movies\Reizenstein - Bush - Ireland - Violin Sontatas\01 I Tranquillo.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00

Peak level 89.1 %
Extraction speed 2.4 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC CEC2795F
Copy CRC CEC2795F
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [2737CB37] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 2

Filename J:\movies\Reizenstein - Bush - Ireland - Violin Sontatas\02 II Allegro, ma troppo.wav

Peak level 78.7 %
Extraction speed 2.6 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 375DC964
Copy CRC 375DC964
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [D20E4B20] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 3

Filename J:\movies\Reizenstein - Bush - Ireland - Violin Sontatas\03 III Finale. Misterioso - Allegro risoluto.wav

Peak level 87.7 %
Extraction speed 3.1 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 0B4A5AD2
Copy CRC 0B4A5AD2
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [053E6719] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 4

Filename J:\movies\Reizenstein - Bush - Ireland - Violin Sontatas\04 Violin Sonata.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:09.58

Peak level 79.6 %
Extraction speed 3.7 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 916032B9
Copy CRC 916032B9
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [D4CA97A7] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 5

Filename J:\movies\Reizenstein - Bush - Ireland - Violin Sontatas\05 I Allegro.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:09.46

Peak level 96.5 %
Extraction speed 3.5 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 12421A76
Copy CRC 12421A76
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [35E15D48] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 6

Filename J:\movies\Reizenstein - Bush - Ireland - Violin Sontatas\06 II Poco lento quasi adagio.wav

Peak level 81.5 %
Extraction speed 4.3 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 0B290A57
Copy CRC 0B290A57
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [96AE4143] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 7

Filename J:\movies\Reizenstein - Bush - Ireland - Violin Sontatas\07 III In tempo moderato - Con brio.wav

Peak level 79.0 %
Extraction speed 4.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 45BC8971
Copy CRC 45BC8971
Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [98E2DAE4] (AR v2)
Copy OK

All tracks accurately ripped

No errors occurred

End of status report

==== Log checksum 3A32FB2592CD2B73580543E0C649DFA61CC03A75B98F33033E7C7EF4D8651E28 ====

Thanks to the Original ripper sharky77 !

Download from icerbox.com

2017 Contemporary Classical Music Classical Lossless Early 20th century Classical Music