Search - Allan Pettersson, Duo Gelland, Lennart Wallin :: Allan Pettersson: Sonatas for Two Violins

Daredevil Acrobatics on Slender Strings

Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 07/21/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The seven sonatas for two violins might be the most imaginative and passionate works of the sort since the great Baroque string virtuoso Heinrich Biber, and though they are 'modern' in affect, they are profoundly traditional in tonality. Like Biber's stunning Mystery Sonatas, with their radical scordatura effects, these sonatas push the violinists to their technical limits and keep them there, but not merely for display, rather for emotional intensity.



Have you ever gone to a performance of the Cirque de Soleil? There you might see two strong acrobats doing hand-to-hand balancing tricks, and you might at first suppose that the repertoire of such tricks is exhausted, all done, nothing new. But then the acrobats uncork a trick that you can't imagine possible, that totally defines Newtonian laws. That's how these sonatas will touch you.



The romances and elegies for violin and piano that complete the CD are surprisingly luscious romanticism, almost as if Pettersson had decided to compose for intimate occasions. The single piece for solo piano is also daringly traditional, almost Ravel-like. Pianist Lennart Wallin plays quite well; old amazon friends may take note of how my heart swells with Swedish national pride at this performance.



I'm always more a fan of chamber music on CD than of symphonies, and Pettersson is primarily a composer of symphonies, but I think this intimate performance, full of variety and fire, might well be the optimum intoduction to Pettersson's musical idiom."