This disc sounds terrific. Jasper Wood plays with a firm, rich tone and he’s excellently balanced against David Riley’s sparkling piano accompaniments. Most of the music here consists of arrangements of orchestral pieces, most notably the Divertimento (from The Fairy’s Kiss based on Tchaikovsky) and the Suite Italienne (from Pulcinella based on Pergolesi, Gallo, and others). The latter sounds especially fine as “deconstructed” for violin and piano, particularly as the originals were trio sonatas anyway. Wood and Riley play with a nice rhythmic “kick” in the Tarentella and Finale, and their smoothly gliding tones in the Minuetto are a thing of beauty.
I also enjoyed the Firebird’s Scherzo very much in this arrangement and performance: the chamber forces clarify the music’s harmonic spice, which often gets lost in the fog of the orchestral original. The Duo Concertante, written as a sort of warm-up to the Violin Concerto, has great charm too, the players never taxed by the music’s technical demands. In terms of sheer polish this doesn’t replace the classic combination of Lin/Schub (Sony) in the three big works, but you get more music here, better sound, and, all things considered, a comparable level of general excellence. Definitely worth a listen.
