Violin Sonata, opus 134; Viola Sonata, opus 147.
Levon Ambartsumian (violin)[a]/(viola)[b], Anatoly Sheludyakov (piano).
Phoenix USA PHCD 155. DDD. TT 59:48.
Recorded Hugh Hodgson Hall, University of Georgia Performing Arts Centre, Athens, Georgia, USA, April 2003.

Cello Sonata, opus 40, arranged for viola and piano by Viktor Kubatsky; Suite from The Gadfly, opus 97a, arranged for viola and piano by Vadim Borisovksy[a]; Viola Sonata, opus 147.
Lars Anders Tomter (viola), Håvard Gimse (piano).
Somm SOMMCD 030. DDD. TT 71:11.
Recorded Christ Church, Sutton, UK, 12 and 13 December 2003.
[a]World premiere recording.

Viola Sonata, opus 147; Cello Sonata, opus 40, arranged for viola by Annette Bartholdy[a].
Julius Drake (viola), Annette Bartholdy (piano).
Naxos 8.557231. DDD. TT 63:07.
Recorded Henry Wood Hall, London, 10-12 May 2001.
[a]World premiere recording.

Here's an unusual assortment of recordings of the string sonatas - with the viola and violin sonatas played by the same musician, and 2 different versions of the Cello Sonata for viola.

Levon Ambartsumian plays both violin and viola well - for him the violin came first, at the age of 3, whereas the viola's appearance in his life is not specified in the CD's liner notes. The disc was recorded in Athens, Georgia (US) in April 2003, following an intense all-Shostakovich concert in the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall on 23 February 2003. He played the opp. 134 and 147 as on the CD reviewed here, plus Five Preludes for Violin & Piano from opus 34 arranged by Dmitri Tsyganov, and the New York premiere of From Jewish Folk Poetry, opus 79, arranged for violin by Sergei Dreznin. In that concert, Ambartsumian did not impress favourably (I had not heard him before), appearing tenuous and shaky, perhaps ill. His performance of the Violin Sonata was marred by an overly pedantic approach, poor intonation especially on the G-string and an absence of the needed hushed mystery in the andante. The live Viola Sonata, after the intermission, was very wobbly; Ambartsumian played almost without vibrato, making his frequent lapses of intonation even more glaring, and played the allegretto much too fast for his technique. Best on the programme were the Five Preludes, back on the violin, and the Jewish Folk Poetry, a wonderful arrangement by composer Dreznin of six of the opus 79 songs, with a very slapstick ending for Happiness, full of dissonance and dark humour. Ambartsumian's playing was so rapt that he broke a string and had to start up again after a brief repair. Sad to say, neither this work nor the Five Preludes are on the CD - I'd much rather have them here than the Viola Sonata.

Ambartsumian's CD performances are much better than the aforementioned New York concert - assured playing, much less of the pedantic carefulness and a more warm and measured approach especially in the Viola Sonata, although still generally faster than many. The Viola Sonata still comes off as the more secure performance. An unfortunate flub by the editor has virtually no break between the end of the Violin and start of the Viola Sonata. I remain forever loyal to the Oistrakh and Shostakovich version, despite its less-than-professional recording, Oistrakh's strained and even gasping playing, and Shostakovich's crippled right hand desperately trying to make the notes in the grand piano solo in the third movement (Eclectra ECCD-2046; reviewed in DSCH No. 14). This ferocity of music making was also evident in Ambartsumian's concert performance of the Jewish Folk Songs, and I wish this occurred more in the sonatas on the CD.

The title of the Somm CD as The Two Viola Sonatas is unfortunate and misleading. Shostakovich dedicated his opus 40 to cellist Viktor Kubatsky, who performed the premiere of the work and later made, "with the composer's encouragement and approval, an edition of the cello part for viola" (quote from Robert Matthew-Walker's good but brief liner notes). Lars Anders Tomter's recording is billed as the "first recording in the western world" and is, as far as I can find, the only recording of this arrangement since Yuri Yurov and Mikhail Muntyan's on Melodiya in 1975. The arrangement sits rather well on the viola, with little alteration of the cello part in adapting to the instrument. Even the much-loved harmonic glissandi in the second movement come across quite well, and certain passages emerge in a relief not otherwise heard. On the whole, however, the sound is rather constricted when played on viola, and the lack of the cello's lower register hurts the range of the piece, particularly in sections such as the beginning of the third and fourth movements. Tomter's playing is generally excellent, as is that of his pianist Håvard Gimse, with sharp colours, depth of intensity, and good sense of wit. The brief bumblebee passage in the fourth movement is especially good. Tomter's and Gimse's approach to the Viola Sonata is freer and rather more detached than Ambartsumian's and Sheludyakov's, certainly more relaxed in tempi in the second and third movements. Indeed, the allegretto comes across as too laid-back in parts and therefore too episodic - more removed from The Gamblers unfinished opera than it should be, although Tomter's strummed arpeggiated pizzicati do sound like the opera's balalaika.

This CD's gem is the Suite from The Gadfly, opus 97a, arranged by the Beethoven Quartet's violist Vadim Borisovsky "with the composer's full approval". The recorded Suite consists of Scene, Intermezzo, People's Holiday, and Romance, the latter so familiar on numerous violin recordings. For this world premiere recording, it is most unfortunate that the musicians did not include the other five parts of Borisovsky's arrangement: the Overture, Contredanse, Barrel Organ Waltz, Galop, and Nocturne. To add these, the Viola Sonata could have been kicked onto another disc. In the four brief pieces here, Tomter and Gimse play very well, and the People's Holiday (Folkfest) is fun: all-in-all, a good work with which to close a programme, but here inserted between the two sonatas.

Violist Annette Bartholdy made her own arrangement of opus 40 for viola - she is familiar with Kubatsky's arrangement as well as another by violist Yevgeny Strakhov, but chose to make a very similar one herself, in which she brings out a few sections more sharply. The score of her arrangement is now available from Boosey & Hawkes. Bartholdy's world premiere recording of her arrangement is technically very good but largely on the slow side, which is most glaring in a glacial end to both the moderato and the largo. Bartholdy's tone in the allegro is strident, and this stridency is not sufficiently overcome by Julius Drake, the pianist, due to his own terse phrasing. Bartholdy's harmonic glissandi in the second movement are less convincing than Tomter's, which can also be said for the entire performance.

Slowness also rules Bartholdy's Viola Sonata, with her moderato being almost three minutes slower than Tomter's and two minutes more than Ambartsumian's (although her adagio is 1.5 minutes faster than the record slowness of Bashmet & Richter on Moscow Studio Archives MOS19064 or Regis RRC 1128; reviewed in DSCH No. 20). She adheres well to what Shostakovich desired in the first movement of his String Quartet No. 15 - for even flies in the room to drop dead out of the air from boredom - but the sonata's music is not served by this approach. The moderato loses focus and cohesion and I find myself drifting off each time I listen. Although her allegretto is a full minute slower than Ambartsumian's, Bartholdy manages to convey a nice vocal sense to the viola line, but fails to "channel" the balalaika with her too-dense pizzicati. Her adagio again is overly stretched out, and doesn't evoke for me the intense sadness and longing that the other versions - and Bashmet's even slower version - readily do. The recording's tone, from three days at Henry Wood Hall in London, is excessively dry and shallow in both works. David Nice's liner notes are superb, although given in very tiny print.

Richard Pleak
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