Saturday 18 September 2004

Handel and Franck / Fauré. First it was sheer bliss to listen to Patrizia Ciofi and Joyce Di Donato singing duets from Handel operas (Virgin Veritas, new release). Handel soars and dives and enchants. This really is a CD to take to Heaven (or elsewhere) with me.
Followed by the elusive Lola Bobescu (with Jacques Genty) in the Franck sonata and the first Fauré sonata. One can only boggle at the fact that semi-contemporaries such as Isaac Stern had great and glorious careers while Bobescu (who was his equal technically and his superior musically) hung around on the edges of a Belgian / Japanese career. Like Ciofi and Di Donato in Handel, Bobescu soars and dives. I must find more of her recordings. Hard to get.
Nachspeisen were Sherry Kloss playing arrangements and transcriptions (on Heifetz's own Tononi violin). CD courtesy of Carlos. Highly enjoyable. A shame no one has really taken on the large-scale arrangement work of Kreisler and Heifetz in the violin world. Anyway; well done Ms Kloss. And the violin sounds just as good as it did back in 1917 on Heifetz's original recordings.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Harry: Bobescu's records are not only hard to get but very expensive. Check her vynils on E-Bay. Not one less than 50 dollars up.Its the same with Martzy, Neveu, Morini, Ferras and others. And her recordings on CDs are equally rare. Good luck. Carlos.

alberto said...

I am really happy to have discovered another lover of Bobescu's playing. I have just found a wonderful CD of DOM label featuring Bobescu and Genty in wonderful perfomances of the three Brahms' sonatas plus the F.A.E. The musical insight is marvellous, up to the standard set by Leonid Kogan (with Andrzey Mitnik) and Joseph Suk (with Julius Katchen, even if certain phrases are lacking the wonderful intonation of Heifetz, Milstein, Oistrakh)...a major musical experience nevertheless...the piano accompaniment by Genty is inspired to the clear tunes of Edwin Fischer, even if he plays more staccato and without the utmost perfection I have heard from Fischer in a wonderful Testament CD, with Gioconda de Vito, at the violin. You can find this CD at www.musicweb-international searching the page dedicated to Talents Label. I think you ould Buy the CD, via PayPal...and you can find also a CD featuring Bobescu playing two Viotti's concertos.

Harry Collier said...

Interesting comment, Alberto. Thanks. I know and love de Vito and Fischer in Brahms (alas that they never did the second sonata together). I had never heard of Bobescu and Genty in the three Brahms sonatas, but this will be worth seeking out.