Imma, Dublin
Prokofiev – Sonata No 2. Beethoven – Sonata No 8. Clara Schumann – Three Romances Op 22. Grieg – Sonata No 2.
Czech violinist Ivan Zenaty had big ideas for Grieg’s second violin sonata. This was clear not only from the forcible rhetoric with which he infused its introductory
Lento doloroso
, but also from his decision to place it last in a programme that had begun with such heavyweights as Prokofiev and Beethoven.
In the event, though, there came the slightly sinking feeling that Grieg’s earnest folksy essay wasn’t going to top the splendours of the first half. The effects of this were felt chiefly in the piano playing of Stanislav Bogunia, who from time to time lost sight of Zenaty’s intentions, and inadvertently terminated the central
Allegretto
on a major chord.
Programme order aside, however, this was a formidable recital. While Zenaty’s distaste for light touches and sugary tone qualities may have weighed a little heavily on Clara Schumann’s indulgently melodic
Romances
, there was a commanding gravity to both artists’ accounts of the two first-half sonatas.
Nothing was allowed to trivialise Prokofiev’s moments of neo-tunefulness; rather, they seemed to breathe an air of danger that was fully unleashed in the noisier dénouements. This became even more palpable in the finale, when Zenaty’s music copy twice fell from the stand, proving that he was barely dependent on it.
Though here the balance was weighted somewhat in favour of the piano, the same could not be said of Beethoven’s Sonata No 8, where a consolidated certainty of interpretation allowed every brisk detail and insistent repetition to fall naturally, effortlessly and convincingly into place.
