I have the feeling that we do not really live in the age of the encore piece—today's world has less charm and an overbalanced preference for the intellectual and the 'serious' in music. Certainly there are not so many violinists who have the capacity to treat miniatures in an unashamedly affectionate manner—Itzhak Perlman is an exception. For my taste Dmitry Sitkovetsky is just too unsmiling in this type of music (despite the photo on the booklet cover, in which he seems to be enjoying a joke).
Sitkovetsky's tone is rather on the shrill side. The first piece I listened to was the Dvorak and the lack of a warm sound allows it to appear colourless. In Klengel's arrangement of the Brahms Hungarian Dance the rhythm of the slower sections is a little contrived and ineffective. Sitkovetsky is hardly a carefree player.
The two violinist composers, Wieniawski and Kreisler, certainly knew how to exploit the instrument, but excepting the clean elegance and quick articulation of the former's Polonaise in D, I felt that the player demonstrated very little affinity with the style. The surges of energy that one finds in Kreisler's own reading of Schon Rosmarin are entirely absent and I think that Sitkovetsky should acquaint himself with the master's recordings to find out what these pieces are all about.
The Ravel, Bartok and Prokofiev are much better suited to his tightly controlled way of playing. The three Romanian Folkdances have plenty of detail and the folk elements are portrayed with strength. The muted arabesques of the ''Fairy of Winter'' from Prokofiev's ballet Cinderella provided for me the most memorable playing on the disc. The piano tends to be too loud on the recording, although Gililov is a highly competent player.'