Search - Franck, Shostakovitch, Sergey Khachatryan :: Shostakovich, Franck: Violin Sonatas

An Immensely Talented Brother-Sister Team

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 04/15/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Just as we've gotten used to the notion that Gil and Orli Shaham are the best brother-sister violin-piano duo around, here come Sergey Khachatryan, violinist, and his talented pianist sister, Lusine, who are equally blessed with musicality and technique. I'd never heard the team before, but I had heard and recommended (with some reservations) Sergey's recording of the two Shostakovich Violin Concertos Shostakovich: Violin Concertos. On this disc we get the Franck Sonata and the Shostakovich Sonata Op. 134. Both performances are excellent.



Ned Rorem famously opined that all French music is female and all German music is male. If that is true, then César Franck is the most nearly male of all French composers -- okay, I know he was a Belgian but he spent the major portion of his life in Paris -- at least partly because he was, to a great extent, a Wagneriste and all those enharmonic modulations keep sounding German to me. And indeed most performances of his violin sonata sound German, too. But not this performance of what I feel is Franck's most 'French' chamber work. It is delicately drawn in pastels and one can almost smell the aroma of spring flowers. The strict Germanic canon of the glorious last movement is here played with such innocence and joyous rapture that it could never have been written by anyone other than a proto-impressionist. This traversal comes close to matching what, for me, is the best recording I ever heard, the one by Kyung-Wha Chung and Radu Lupu. High praise indeed.



Shostakovich wrote his Op. 134 sonata very late in his career. He composed it for David Oistrakh and at its première the performers were Oistrakh and Sviatoslav Richter. It made a huge impression then and their recording has come down to us as the ne plus ultra. This is an exceedingly somber, angst-ridden work. It consists of two long slow movements flanking an almost hysterical scherzo. I had expected that Khachatryan would not be able to rise to the emotional heights that this work demands, but I was wrong, especially in the final passacaglia. He does not, it is true, have the grit and steel that Oistrakh had (and indeed, that was my reservation about his recording of the First Concerto as well) but there is a subtle, almost understated, angst that especially on repeated listening comes through with intensity. It reminds one of the almost mute, but actually deeply felt, recounting of the horrors of the Holocaust or of the Stalinist terrors by survivors. This is a valid and moving performance of great masterpiece.



Strongly recommended, especially for those who have other recordings of these works. These performances demonstrate, among other things, that masterpieces can admit of seemingly quite disparate musical approaches.



Scott Morrison"

Marvelous music making

Tom Gossard | Los Angeles, CA United States | 06/20/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I heard the latter two movements of the Franck Sonata on my car radio as I drove home from a rehearsal. Caught off-guard by the sheer passion of the performers, I wanted to hear the first two movements - and the Shostakovitch with which I was not familiar. What luck, then, in the Franck, to hear these talented performers play pianissimo phrases with tenderness, then soar to heights of passion, all with a touching sincerity and modesty. There is a molten abandon in the 2d movement, a dignified 'Grave' (but with no less passion when called for) in the 3rd. In the final movement, the Khachatryans play with a joyousness that is as unselfconscious and expressive as I can imagine. I knew I was listening to a master violinist - a young, developing master certainly, but no mistake - and a comparably talented partner. Subsequent hearings have only deepened my appreciation of their talent.



Their recording of the Shostakovitch sonata has the requisite bite and irony, and an almost monastic melancholy, that are characteristic of the latter day compositions of arguably the greatest of 20th century composers. The Khachatryans don't go out of their way to emphasize the mordant wit, oppressiveness, and repressed rage and despair here, but play nonetheless with commitment and not a little insight. Having now listened several times to both sonatas, I want to keep this marvelous CD close by so I can hear it as soon and often as I wish. Marvelous music making. Don't miss it."

Marvellous Franck, but the Shostakovich needs more imaginati

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 10/02/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I think the spare, affectless writing in late Shostakovich leaves blank stretches that performers must fill in. For many, spare is the same as bleak, and there's no doubt that Shostakovich bleached a lot of color, complexity, and melody from a score like the Violin Sonata. The romantic persona of the violinist, swooningly carried out in the Franck sonata, gives way to existentialism. It's not enough for a performer to drain his style of optimism or to make it uniformly despairing. There are hints of wit, satire, dreaminess, and other relics of Shostakovich at his most vital -- if only in ghostly form.



Even though I'm a great admirer of his, young Sergey Khachatryan hasn't found as much in the Shostakovich as I wanted. In the Franck he's inspiring -- subtle and superbly expressive, aidded by the ravishing Strad that he plays. Sister Lusine is a fine, sympathetic partner, although not up to the likes of Richter with Oistrakh, who also paired these two works. They remind us of what force and maturity it takes to fill in the blanks of the Shostakovich sonata. I'm afraid that Lusine's playing feels a bit flat and conventional. Sergey, too, doesn't find the rapt conentration that makes his Shostakovich 1st Violin Conerto so riveting. At times here he's almost relaxed, and that's not good -- the melodic line, such as it is, gets too thin.



The Scherzo is their most successful movement. Here Sergey slahses his bow to shreds, as any passionate Shostakovich violinist must, and Lusine keeps up. But long sequences in the first and last movement call for a stronger point of view. Only compare this CD with the Israeli husband-wife team of Vadim Gluzman and Angela Yoffe -- their recent account on Bis attacks the score with far mroe energy and imagination.



I'm sorry to render such a verdict. I feel like a dead-head Gramophone reviewer totting up pluss and minuses. The Khachatryans are wonderful musicians, and I find Sergey a phenom. But the Shostakovich proves too enigmatic for them to quite solve."