COMPOSERS: Brubeck & Campagnoli,Enescu,Glick,Locatelli,Piazzolla,Ridout
LABELS: Analekta
ALBUM TITLE: Angle Dubeau: Solo
WORKS: Solo Violin Works by Locatelli, Enescu, Piazzolla, Ridout, Glick, Brubeck & Campagnoli
PERFORMER: Angèle Dubeau (violin)
CATALOGUE NO: AN 2 8741-2 (CD and DVD-Audio options)
To begin, unusually, with the recording: it’s incredibly resonant, either deliberately to give full rein to the DVD 5.1 surround sound, or because it was unavoidable in the acoustic. In Alan Ridout’s melodrama Ferdinand the Bull, the difference between the close, dry sound of the narrator and the wide-open spaces around the violin is particularly distracting. In any case, Dubeau’s a muscular player, with a big sound that would create its own resonance in any space. Sometimes it’s too big: the opening Locatelli caprice is rich and vibrant, and performed with a passion that is close to being over the top. Her approach is more suited to Enescu, where her digging into the string gives real intensity to the Prelude Op. 9 No. 1; and to the improvisatory Serenade and Dance by Srul Irving Glick.
In Piazzolla, Dubeau has a tendency to pull the rhythms around too much, so that the fundamental dance feel disappears, and the tango element of the Tango Etudes (there are three of them here), goes by the wayside. On the plus side, her tone is always centred, and she clearly has no technical fears. But her almost unremitting intensity, coupled with the bathroom acoustic are ultimately a turn-off. Martin Cotton