Ernest Bloch - Violin Sonatas (Hagai Shaham; Arnon Erez)

Information

Composer: Ernest Bloch

• Violin Sonata No. 1
• Violin Sonata No. 2 "Poème mystique"
• Mélodie
• Nuit exotique
• Abodah

Hagai Shaham, violin

Arnon Erez, piano

Date: 2004

Label: Hyperion

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Review

Written in 1920 and 1922, Bloch’s violin sonatas are among the finest of the past century. The First is a Bartókian virtuoso piece whose slashing attacks and violent rhythms reflect an emotional hangover from the devastation of World War I. The Second, subtitled “Poème mystique”, strives for transcendence. It’s a substantial single continuous movement that includes sections derived from Catholic liturgy and from the Jewish themes that occupied the composer during this period. Both require players attuned to Bloch’s style and the intensity of the music. Hagai Shaham and Arnon Erez are two such musicians.

They are up to the aggressive modernism of the outer movements but also are affecting in the second movement, with the violin singing over piano arpeggios. They capture the pounding rhythms and forward motion of the Finale, and they’re marvelously eloquent in the last third of that movement, where aggressiveness gives way to a poignant sense of exhaustion. In the more lyrical Second, both artists are passionate in a more concentrated work, if (for me) a less compelling one.

Shaham impresses in all aspects of these sonatas. His manner is fiery, his tone is full-bodied from a top of great purity to a bottom deep and resonant, and he tosses off the virtuoso passages with aplomb. Erez is a full partner, sometimes coming close to usurping the lead, which can be all to the good here. He roams the keyboard with assurance, playing with crisp exactitude and full-bodied tone.

Competition comes from Isaac Stern, whose febrile First I recall (but memory may be wrong) as a take-no-prisoners exercise in frenzy, and Jascha Heifetz, whose early 1950s versions of both sonatas are brilliantly played (what else from this source?). But he’s also too brisk, making the ending of the First less telling than it should be. As heard in RCA’s Heifetz Collection, close microphoning makes him sound strident at times and his pianists are too recessed. Miriam Kramer, on Naxos, is slower than the competition but plays with deep feeling, almost overcoming so-so engineering. She’s at budget price though, and adds the substantial Suite hébraïque, which Shaham does not. Instead, he plays the Nuit exotique, which she doesn’t. Both include the brief but sweet Mélodie and Abodah.

These shorter works are worth having, but the sonatas are the main event, and the Shaham-Erez performances are now the clearly preferred versions. My only disappointment with Hyperion’s otherwise vivid engineering is the too-wide separation of the instruments, lending an unnecessary artificiality to the disc even as it may clarify some of the cross-rhythms and counterpoint. [1/25/2006]

— Dan Davis

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Ernest Bloch (July 24, 1880 – July 15, 1959) was a Swiss-born American composer known for blending post-Romantic and neoclassical styles with Jewish musical themes. He studied in Switzerland and Belgium, taught at the Geneva Conservatory, and moved to the U.S. in 1916. Bloch became the first director of the Cleveland Institute of Music and later led the San Francisco Conservatory. He taught at UC Berkeley until retiring in 1952. Bloch's compositions, influenced by Debussy, Mahler, and Ravel, include Schelomo, Baal Shem, Avodath Hakodesh, Concerto Grosso No. 1, and Israel Symphony, among others.

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Hagai Shaham (born July 8, 1966) is an Israeli violin virtuoso. He began studying the violin at the age of six and was the last student of the late Professor Ilona Feher. In September 1990, Shaham and his duo partner Arnon Erez won the first prize at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich. As a soloist he has performed with many of the world's major orchestras, as well as in recitals and chamber music performances. Shaham regularly tours throughout Europe, and North and South America, performing at international recital series and festivals. He has recorded for the Biddulph, Hyperion, Avie and Naxos labels.

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Arnon Erez is an acclaimed Israeli pianist. A graduate of the Rubin Academy of Music, Tel Aviv University, he pursued further chamber music studies in the United States with the Guarneri Quartet. His international career began in 1990, after winning—together with his duo partner Hagai Shaham—the ARD International Music Competition in Munich. As a concert pianist, Erez has performed in numerous major concert halls and festivals around the world. He has recorded for several labels such as Hyperion, Biddulph and Nimbus. Erez currently teaches at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music.

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