Search - Niccolo Paganini, Karol Jozef Lipinski, Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst :: Art of Yulian Sitkovetsky, Vol. 4

More of the Superb Artistry of a Violinist Cut Down in His P

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 09/17/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In 1945 the three winners in the All Soviet Union Young Performers Competition were Sviatoslav Richter, piano; Mstislav Rostropovich, cello; and Yulian Sitkovetsky, violin. The first two went on to virtually reign over all others who played their respective instruments. It is likely that Yulian Sitkovetsky might have done the same except for his impossibly tragic death of lung cancer in 1958 at the age of 32. He had married Bella Davidovich, she of the luminous pianism, and fathered Dmitry Sitkovetsky, now one of the world's best-regarded violinists and conductors. And they, along with some other members of the Sitkovetsky family, have been making Yulian's recorded legacy available via Artek Records. This is Volume IV and I see from the catalogs that Volume V is just now being issued.



This CD contains the Second Paganini Concerto, whose third movement is the famous 'La Campanella'. Accompanied by the USSR State Radio Symphony Orchestra, this is an incandescent account; the orchestra is less present than one might like, but it is in otherwise fine mono sound. Here one can sample Sitkovetsky's impeccable intonation, amazingly controlled bow arm, his tight and lean vibrato coupled with a basically classical but lyric approach, his incredible flute tones, slides, shifts, double stops, spiccato, bariolage and the like. This is not only a major virtuoso but a fine musician as well. The rest of the CD contains two solo violin works -- Lipinski's 'Caprice' and Ernst's 'Variations on "The Last Rose of Summer"' -- as well as a number of tidbits for violin and piano -- Paganini's '"Le Streghe" Variations', 'Moses Fantasia', and 'Moto Perpetuo', and Bazzini's '"La Ronde de lutins" Variations' -- all of them with Bella Davidovich at the piano. I was awestruck more times than I could count. As I write this the Bazzini is once again impressing me enough that I had to simply stop and listen yet another time.



The artistry on display on this disc and its companions should add substantially to Sitkovetsky's reputation, already high among violin cognoscenti.



Scott Morrison"