For some people, a whole disc of solo violin music is more solo violin music than they ever want to hear. For those people, this disc by the Russian virtuoso
Maxim Vengerov comes highly recommended: 66 minutes of virtuoso violin playing and all of it fascinating music. The four solo sonatas by Eugène Ysaÿe that open the disc are astoundingly difficult for the player, but astonishingly compelling for the listener. Sonata No. 2 "Obsession" has snatches of Bach set alongside snippets of the medieval Dies Irae chant, creating a frightening soundscape that
Vengerov gallops across like the Headless Horseman. Sonata No. 3 "Ballade" is a dramatic tone poem for solo violin that
Vengerov acts as well as plays. The Sonata No. 4 was dedicated to the great Vienna violinist
Fritz Kreisler and
Vengerov plays it with all the charm of old Vienna. The Sonata No. 6, dedicated to Spanish virtuoso
Manuel Quiroga, features a slinky habanera and
Vengerov leans into it like a man dancing the tango. The first of two works by contemporary Russian composer
Rodion Shchedrin, the "Echo" sonata is hard but rewarding listening and
Vengerov plays it with total dedication. The second
Shchedrin piece, Balalaika -- an encore
Vengerov played before a live audience -- is a hilarious piece in which the violin is plucked and strummed but never bowed, a piece that has the audience laughing for the sheer fun of it. But the real reason to hear this disc is
Vengerov's performance of Bach's famous Toccata and Fugue in a transcription for solo violin. While the work is best known as an organ piece or in
Stokowski's orchestral arrangement,
Vengerov's performance of this violin transcription is stunning: brilliantly performed, terrifyingly virtuosic, and utterly demonic.