Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Polina Leschenko – Deux (Bartók, Poulenc & Ravel) (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 52:55 minutes | 909 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Alpha Classics

The least that one could say about the art of Moldavian violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja is that one cannot be left indifferent by it – so completely does she set herself apart from her “smoother”, more mainstream peers. One only needs to hear her explosive reading of Ravel’s Tzigane, where she is particularly daring: the result is extravagant, but in reality, it is wholly in keeping with the spirit of this score, which too many violinists play prissily: after listening to this, you’ll not want to hear it played any other way. Kopatchinskaja murmurs, rages, dreams, swoons, surges, explodes, caresses, grips, undulates, chirrups and slaps through the ten minutes of this humorous, provocative, bravura performance. Doubtless the serious Bartók wouldn’t have relished Ravel’s pseudo-Hungarian allusions – not understanding that the French composer was simply lampooning the Viennese pseudo-Hungarian-Tzigane style – going by his Second Sonata for Violin and Piano, which is both dogmatically Magyar and Bartókian, a rather gruff piece all in all. Much less gruff is the sumptuous Sonata by Poulenc, written in 1943 in a tone which is sometimes tragic – even if the facetious Poulenc undertakes his own personal Resistance by working into each of his three movements a quotation from Tea for Two, a song forbidden under the Occupation. Pianist Polia Leschenko offers the violinist a breather with the short but efficient waltz  Coppelia by Dohnanyi, a little Franco-Hungarian wink, a prelude to the big winkTzigane, which crowns the album.
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