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Review by Beagle December 8, 2009 (7 of 8 found this review helpful)
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OFF-THE-CUFF* REVIEW No. 1
I like this guy, Schnittke. He has a strong dose of Shostakovich's inability to take himself seriously -- what the russians call a Holy Fool. Anyone who can put the buzzing of flies into a quartet dedicated to his dead mother, has self-irony.
And the Janácek Trio -- a bunch of youngsters, not crusty old men -- constantly astonish me with their instrumental finesse: Schnittke's "À Paganini" is a rich pastiche of solo violin riffs ranging from Bach to Bartók in their musical nods of the head -- and Helena Jirikovska's rendition of these pyrotechnics is, in a word, awesome. Novák's cello and Janákovo's piano traverse challenging scores at the same high level.
If this is your first Schnittke, give it time to grow on you. Yes, Schnittke can indeed sound like the village idiot pounding on an unattended piano -- he's a holy fool but he's no idiot. At one point he pounds on the high A-flat key, tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap, as if to say "Listen, THIS is A-flat!" Then the same treatment for high A, as if to say "And this, THIS is A itself!" and he continues to bang on the A until it no longer sounds like A... like a correctly-spelled word stared at until it's spelling looks 'wrong'. --This moment of in-your-face key tapping is an extreme example of what Schittke might decide to do, but a visceral moment which I found quite captivating. It reminded me that, beneath all the sonata-forms, modulations and ternary arches yadda-yadda, MUSIC IS SOUND. If you forget that, why are you listening?
My only complaint about this disc was (note the past-tense) that the acoustics of the opening Trio were too resonant, making the instruments difficult to distinguish spatially. Well, I've got used to that acoustic on the Nth listening and don't notice it anymore. And what I suspect is exactly the same acoustic (venue, miking) works perfectly for the solo instrument works. The Recording Engineers are the same Václav Roubal and Karel Soukeník who have produced wonderful -- and not so wonderful -- sound-spaces on other Praga Digital SACDs. It's a black art, I'm sure.
*This last weekend, I was reading some "60 second reviews" by Liam Lacey, of films showing at the Toronto International Film Festival -- and I decided to write some reviews with more spontaneity and less scholarship. Note for ESL members: 'off the cuff' refers to quick notes scribbled by dignitaries on the celluloid cuffs of their formal dress shirts, circa 1900.
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Review by JJ July 1, 2008 (5 of 8 found this review helpful)
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Without a doubt, here is one of the most beautiful tributes paid to Russian composer Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998) on the tenth anniversary of his death. His works “often seem like a progressive defrosting in which the listener seesaws between two worlds,” states Benoît Duteurtre in his remarkable work “Requiem for an avant-garde.” Schnittke evolved more and more towards a freer style which relied on many styles, from the neo-Baroque shimmer of the Concerti Grossi to the unadorned tension of the Trio. […] His many works can be considered a continuation of Shostakovich’s, even Berg’s, because of its mix of expressivity and tone research, done with genial ease.” This recording includes the “Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello”, dating from 1982, “Madrigal” from 1990, which is a work for cello alone in memory of Oleg Kagan, and the “Sonata for Piano N°1” from 1987. Discovered at the 2008 Midem, the young Janice Trio, made up of Helena Jirikovska on the violin, Market Novak on the cello and Marketa Janackova on the piano, offers delicacy, clarity and depth. Schnettke’s music has rarely been embossed with the seal of such authenticity. And its modernity becomes all the more ardent, based on nuanced tones in the extreme. The remarkably just-right emphasis on certain notes extends to just the right breath in phrasing, all of which flowers into admirable playing. This Super Audio CD, a pure DSD recording of astonishing presence, most notably in the piano sonata, will for many be an essential discovery.
Jean-Jacques Millo
Translation Lawrence Schulman
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