Search - Maurice Ravel, Alfred Schnittke, Karol Szymanowski :: Ravel: Violin Sonata in G Major / Tzigane / Schnittke: Violin Sonata No. 1

This recital of 20th-century violin works brings to our attention a technically superb and musically refined young soloist, Graf Mourja, who was born in Ukraine of Hungarian parentage. This latter element in his background may account for the flair and conviction with which he invests his idiomatic performance of Ravel's Tzigane, a tribute to the gypsy-violin tradition, though Mourja's lucid approach to the characteristically Gallic colors and textures of the same composer's 1927 Sonata is equally finely judged, even if the second movement (Blues) needs to swing a little more. Alfred Schnittke's first sonata of 1963 is less well-known, but it's a piece that in its cogency and drama advances Schnittke's claims to be considered as heir to Shostakovich. More perfumed are the Notturno and Tarantella by the Polish early-20th-century master Karol Szymanowski--hugely demanding in their evanescent moods and carried off here, as is everything in the recording, with impeccable taste. Mourja's partner, the pianist Elena Rozanova (also from Ukraine), matches him skill for skill, and the sound is excellent. --George Hall