Maurice Ravel; Guillaume Lekeu - Violin Sonatas (Alina Ibragimova; Cédric Tiberghien)

Information

Composer: Maurice Ravel; Guillaume Lekeu

• Lekeu - Violin Sonata in G major
• Ravel - Violin Sonata No. 1 in A major
• Ravel - Violin Sonata No. 2 in G major
• Ravel - Tzigane 'Rapsodie de concert'
• Ravel - Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Fauré

Alina Ibragimova, violin

Cédric Tiberghien, piano

Date: 2011

Label: Hyperion

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Review

After their splendid Beethoven cycle, Alina Ibragimova and Cédric Tiberghien turn here to a very different repertoire, demonstrating what a wide range of music they can illuminate with their intelligent, imaginative playing. Much of the ultra-romantic Lekeu Sonata proceeds in a state of elevated emotion, without clear formal signposts. Tiberghien and Ibragimova certainly don’t hold back from sweeping intensity but they still retain a measure of objectivity, finding places to relax and never pushing the expression beyond what sounds beautiful, capturing perfectly the deep tranquillity of the central Très lent, with its distinctive seven beats per bar.

The sound world of the 1897 Ravel Sonata – bright and cool – is evoked with equal conviction. Renaud Capuçon and Frank Braley’s performance (Virgin, 4/02) has fuller tone and more of a romantic sweep but I find the Ibragimova/Tiberghien account more compelling in its care for expressive detail, hinting at moods of gentle nostalgia and emotional fragility. There’s a similar contrast between the two teams in the G major Sonata – Braley and Capuçon more robust, with more strongly projected sound, Ibragimova and Tiberghien more delicate and intimate. In the “Blues” movement, this produces startling results; the details are wonderfully idiomatic, yet the playing is initially so refined that when the music later breaks out of its shell, the contrast is extraordinary. It’s like a strange, distorted dream of a jazz performance. The effect of Tzigane is similar; precision in capturing the idiom, allied to vivid juxtapositions of power and delicacy. It all adds up to a must-hear recital.

— Duncan Druce

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Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy. Born to a music-loving family, Ravel attended the Paris Conservatoire. After leaving the conservatoire, he found his own way as a composer, developing a style of great clarity and incorporating elements of modernism, baroque, neoclassicism and, in his later works, jazz. Among his works to enter the repertoire are pieces for piano, chamber music, two piano concertos, ballet music, two operas and eight song cycles.

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Guillaume Lekeu (20 January 1870 – 21 January 1894) was a Belgian composer. Born in Heusy, he began studying music at a young age and composed his first work at 15. Influenced by Richard Wagner, he later studied with César Franck and Vincent d'Indy. In 1891, he won second prize in the Belgian Prix de Rome for the cantata Andromède. His most celebrated composition, the Violin Sonata in G Major, was commissioned by Eugène Ysaÿe and premiered in 1893. Lekeu died of typhoid fever at age 24, leaving around 50 compositions and a number of unfinished ones, many of which remain highly regarded today.

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Alina Ibragimova (born 28 September 1985) is a Russian-British violinist. Educated at the Yehudi Menuhin School and the Royal College of Music, she studied with leading musicians including Christian Tetzlaff. A former member of the BBC New Generation Artists Scheme, she has received two Royal Philharmonic Society Awards and was appointed MBE in 2016. Ibragimova performs regularly with major orchestras worldwide and frequently appears at renowned venues such as Wigmore Hall and Elbphilharmonie. She records for Hyperion Records, earning critical acclaim for interpretations of Shostakovich, Bach and Paganini.

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Cédric Tiberghien (born 5 May 1975) is a French classical pianist. He studied at the Conservatoire de Paris and received the first prize at 17. Tiberghien wins numerous international awards, including the First Grand Prize and five special prizes at the Long-Thibaud-Crespin Competition. For Harmonia Mundi he made several solo festival recordings: Debussy's piano works, Beethoven's Eroica Variations, Bach's partitas, ballades by Chopin and Brahms. As a dedicated chamber musician, Cédric's regular partners include violinist Alina Ibragimova, violist Antoine Tamestit and baritone Stéphane Degout.

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