Quite a few violinists have braved the musical and technical challenges of Eugène Ysaÿe’s six solo sonatas on disc, including the Serbian-born Andrej Kurti, who teaches at Northwestern State University of Louisiana. One cannot fault his near-perfect intonation, assured technique (check out the Third Sonata’s climactic double stops), and intelligent shaping of polyphony. Yet he often underplays when the music demands virtuosic bravura and improvisatory sweep. His dutifully literal unfolding of the Fourth Sonata’s opening Allemanda, for example, falls far short of Oscar Shumsky’s fiery, pliable phrasing or Thomas Zehetmair’s arresting colors and dynamic gradations. Conversely, Kurti’s dynamic swells and small tempo adjustments in the Second Sonata’s haunting Malinconia movement create a fragmented, vague impression when measured against Tai Murray’s steady, focused, and subtly nuanced interpretation.
While his rubato convincingly ebbs and flows in the one-movement Sixth Sonata’s flamboyant final pages, one misses the surface sheen and uplifting momentum that the aforementioned competitors generate. All of the Fifth Sonata Rustic Dance’s notes are firmly in place, yet where are the accents and phrasings that convey a true “rustic dance” character? Until Yuval Yaron’s traversal gains reissue, Tai Murray’s Harmonia Mundi Ysaÿe sonata cycle offers the best sonic and interpretive combination for these works among modern versions. As usual, Blue Griffin’s sonics are vividly detailed and lifelike.
