Various Composers - The Polish Violin, Vol. 1 (Jennifer Pike; Petr Limonov)

Information

1. Karol Szymanowski - Mythes (Trois Poèmes), Op. 30: I. La Fontaine d'Aréthuse
2. Karol Szymanowski - Mythes (Trois Poèmes), Op. 30: II. Narcisse
3. Karol Szymanowski - Mythes (Trois Poèmes), Op. 30: III. Dryades et Pan
4. Karol Szymanowski - Nocturne & Tarantella in E minor, Op. 28: Nocturne
5. Karol Szymanowski - Nocturne & Tarantella in E minor, Op. 28: Tarantella
6. Karol Szymanowski - Chant de Roxane (from the opera Król Roger, Op. 46)
7. Karol Szymanowski - Romance in D major, Op. 23
8. Moritz Moszkowski - Guitarre in G major, Op. 45 No. 2
9. Mieczysław Karłowicz - Impromptu
10. Henryk Wieniawski - Légende, Op. 17
11. Henryk Wieniawski - Polonaise de concert in D major, Op. 4

Jennifer Pike, violin

Petr Limonov, piano

Date: 2019

Label: Chandos

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Review

Jennifer Pike has a bloodline to this repertoire via her Polish mother but hasn’t simply rested on genealogy, absorbing Polish culture and travelling to the Tatra Mountains for this disc.

Her affinity with Polish expressionistic melancholy is evidenced by deep, personal playing at low registers and a striking harbouring of the sort of ecstatic rapture Szymanowski (in particular) brings to high ones.

That composer makes up the bulk of the menu here and Pike’s engagement with his scented world is made more of rapt than neurotic intensity, with touches of fragility, idiosyncratic little glissandos and some exceptional instances of focus.

Across Szymanowski’s opp.23, 28 and 30, and Kochański’s arrangement of Roxane’s aria from Król Roger, there is every challenge in the book, including abundant double-stopping and specifically coloured harmonics requiring uncomfortable extensions (notably in op.28’s Nocturne).

In the works that follow by Moszkowski, Karłowicz and Wieniawski the effects are more of the coloratura variety, and while there’s a different slant on that melancholy from Karłowicz – Pike brings an almost vocal delivery to the central section of his Impromptu – the post-Szymanowski fillers drop from emotional torture to entertainment and the programme can feel ill balanced.

But in none of those technical challenges does Pike sound anything other than lost in the music – in a good way – and Chandos’s involving sound helps.

— Andrew Mellor

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Jennifer Pike (born 9 November 1989) is a British violinist. She studied at the Chetham's School of Music in Manchester, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, and graduated with First Class Honours in Music from Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, where she is now the Artist-In-Residence. Since winning the BBC Young Musician of the Year Award in 2002, Pike has performed extensively as soloist with major orchestras worldwide and appearing frequently on radio and television. Her prolific and widely-acclaimed discography on Chandos, Sony and ABC Classics. She plays a 1708 violin by Matteo Goffriller.

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Petr Limonov (born 1984) is a Russian-born British pianist. He began studying piano at the age of five and received early recognition after winning First Prize at the Nikolai Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Paris. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music, where he trained with Alexander Satz, Hamish Milne, Dmitri Alexeev and leading pianists through masterclasses. Limonov has performed at major concert halls and festivals worldwide, collaborated with distinguished musicians and orchestras, recorded for prominent classical labels, and appeared on broadcasts.

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