An enthusiast told me recently that Yuri Bashmet is one of the supreme violists to emerge in recent years, and so my curiosity was certainly piqued when I received this CD for review. A pity that there is no biographical information with the release. The performances are taken from public concerts—something that is not mentioned—and there is that air of live music-making that is so often lost in the studio. The overall impact of Bashmet's playing is that his tone has an almost unrivalled cantilena. His musical priorities revolve almost entirely around the sonority of the instrument in that each phrase is made to sing with the maximum expressive effect. Imai on Chandos does not quite have his personality, although perhaps there is more 'light and shade' in her phrasing. Causse's style (Erato), though highly musical, features slides between notes that sound faintly stilted after the other two.
Before discussing individual works I must mention the problems of recorded sound on these three releases, as problems there certainly are. The Chandos piano is extremely reverberant and the Erato pianist's tone is unfortunately wooden. Nor are the Russians on Olympia ideal: the viola is too far forward with an almost hysterical tone at times and the piano sonority is no match for this. I am sure that the lid of the instrument is half closed, because of the restricted range of half-tones and overtones.
Perhaps Bashmet does milk the score for every possible expressive nuance, but his musicality never yields less than enjoyable listening. The finale of the F minor Sonata places heroic touches alongside more delicate ones with a natural fluency and the characteristically Brahmsian strength in the second movement of the E flat work has enviable power. Bashmet colours the variations of the last movement here with some wonderfully sensitive asides.
In the Trio the two join forces with cellist Valentin Berlinsky, and again it is the strings that very much dominate in the recording balance. I cannot remember hearing Brahms sound quite so Slavonic, but casting stylistic matters to one side, one can sit back and admire many qualities of ensemble and tonal beauty. This is certainly a recommended CD, though with reservations about the sound.'