Bach & Stravinsky

COMPOSERS: Bach & Stravinsky
LABELS: ECM
ALBUM TITLE: Bach & Stravinsky
WORKS: Duo concertant, Suite Italienne
PERFORMER: Leonidas Kavakos, Peter Nagy
CATALOGUE NO: 472 7672

Following an impressive disc



of Enescu and Ravel (reviewed



February 2004), Leonidas Kavakos



now presents another thoughtful



juxtapostion. On paper the



combination of Bach and Stravinsky



makes a lot of sense, for the latter’s



works for violin and piano date



almost exclusively from the early



1930s, at the heart of the period when



Bach’s influence was strongest upon



his musical thought. In practice,



the programme is, regrettably,



dysfunctional, especially as presented



here, with the Duo concertant and



Suite Italienne being followed



respectively by Bach’s B minor Partita



and G minor Sonata.



Kavakos may not quite match



the verve and intensity of Lydia



Mordkovitch in the Stravinsky



(Chandos, reviewed January 2000),



but his lyrical account of the Duo



concertant sits quite happily with



its august neighbour, the Partita.



Like Dora Bratchkova (CPO,



reviewed November 2003), Kavakos



lacks Mordkovitch’s spirit in the Suite



italienne, but even this straitlaced



account cannot prevent the sensation



of a splendid trifle being served



before the refined savoury dish of



Bach’s Sonata. At least, the Bach



might have been refined if it had not



been smothered in a soupy acoustic



with the microphone placed under



Kavakos’s nose.



Amid this, his playing is technically



assured, with a gorgeously silken



tone, but Bach needs more humanity



than this. The second Double of the



Partita is just a stream of perfectly



equal notes. Even a moto perpetuo



needs shape, whereas this is like



someone reciting a stream of words



without any sense of the nuance



and rhythm that would turn them



into poetry. For a disc intended



to be heard in its entirety, this



makes an unsatisfying whole.



Christopher Dingle