Here is a violinist of unquestionable talent and charisma, but also of very questionable taste, who’s become the subject of a documentary film. A musical companion to Paola di Florio’s movie Speaking in Strings, this compilation offers 10 samples (mostly excerpts of complete works) of Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg’s art. Throughout this collection, the violinist plays with nonchalance and abandon–sometimes too much: her intonation suffers from her interpretive distortions. Salerno-Sonnenberg’s playing is abundantly flamboyant, but her strong personality shows itself at the expense of sheer musicality. The way she packs a full measure of “expression” into every phrase is enough to induce dizziness in her listeners. Strangely enough, her most convincing performance on this CD is the biting Burlesque from Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto. Rachmaninov’s Vocalise, where she (literally) tries to re-create the magic of Anna Moffo’s breathtaking recording, works well if you accept the overtly sentimental approach. In all of the other selections (Adagio from the Sibelius Concerto, Paganini’s Moto perpetuo, Tchaikovsky’s Tema con variazioni from the Trio in A minor, among others), the violinist’s ego takes over. This is not a disc for frail ears.
