Since Dvorak was himself a violinist (and violist), it is no surprise that he wrote affectionately and idiomatically for the violin. We ought to know these works better, and perhaps violinists do not play them often enough because (except for the Mazurek in E minor with its tricky double stopping) they are more simple than brilliant, often reflecting the composer's peasant origins and the characteristic music of the folk fiddle which he played as a child. I suspect that not every Dvorak admirer is familiar with his Violin Sonata of 1880, and notice that there is only one other version in the current catalogue, played by Josef Suk and Alfred Holecek for Supraphon: a performance AS thought ''very well played''. The same is true of this new account of the work, for Ivan Zenaty is clearly a fine artist who manages to be eloquent and stylish without overstating his case, so that the composer's essential directness is never obscured. The music unfolds naturally here, although in listening to this sonata I do wonder if it is principally the absence of really memorable tunes that has kept it out of concert programmes.
Zenaty and his partner Antonin Kubalek are no less satisfying in the shorter pieces, and it is good to hear harmonics played as elegantly as those at the end of the second of the Four Romantic Pieces. Even the greatest of virtuosos would find it hard to bring off the octaves in No. 3, but I remember the violinist Johanna Martzy telling me that octaves should be played slightly out of tune so that people would notice them! The Sonatina in G, often played by students and not much shorter than the Sonata, is also finely done. This is not spectacular repertory, but it is enjoyable and the sweet tone of Zenaty 's Guadagnini is finely captured by Dorian's recording, which is balanced in favour of the violin but up to this New York company's usual high standard.'