In terms of musical style, Richard Strauss’s lyrical Op 18 (1887) sits poised somewhere between Brahms’s chivalrous song-cycle Die schone Magelone and Strauss’s own Don Juan of the following year. The finale is rich in heroics (note the pianist’s Juan-like leaping motives soon after the opening) though not before a seductive ‘Improvisation’ and the appearance of one of Strauss’s loveliest melodies. Anyone familiar with Heifetz’s three recordings – his second, the first of two with the late Brooks Smith, is probably the most comprehensively expressive – will have a job adapting to anyone else. No one draws a sweeter, more tender opening phrase, though Vadim Repin, like Gidon Kremer, more or less matches Heifetz in terms of repose.
Repin’s feline violin faces leonine support from Boris Berezovsky, almost to excess at around 5'20 into the first movement and for the stormy centre of the second (2'39), where the piano threatens to take over. Berezovsky’s outsize musical personality draws maximum mileage from Strauss’s virtuoso piano writing, though he too is capable of relaxing, as in the tranquil passage from 3'40 into the first movement. Berezovsky’s elegant fingerwork is nicely demonstrated in the decorative figurations that dominate the third section of the second movement (from around 3'44). Kremer and Oleg Maisenberg are also excellent, but Repin’s engagement with the music’s lyrical element just about tips the scales in his favour. Heifetz, though utterly unique, is more ‘accompanied’ by Brooks Smith than partnered by him.
Echoes of Strauss return for the Adagio from Stravinsky’s Fairy’s Kiss re-run, a witty Divertimento prepared in collaboration with violinist Samuel Dushkin. The original was of course fashioned after Tchaikovsky and at 0'58 into the present arrangement’s Adagio there’s even a momentary reference (in the solo violin line) to Tchaikovsky’s Serenade melancolique. Repin’s strongest current rival is Perlman, another memorable reading though perhaps less subtly characterised than Repin’s and, again, Berezovsky’s strong-arm pianism strengthens the frame.
Bartok’s ubiquitous Romanian Folkdances are rather less spicy here than I would have expected from someone who has fiddled in gypsy style with Lakatos, but Repin’s harmonics in the ‘Pe loc’ third movement are admirably clean and the final dances are suitably dashing. The sound is very well balanced and my only complaint concerns a total timing of 52'31. There was even room for another sonata, but in other respects, this is a worthwhile and musically rewarding recital