Collectors with long memories know Canadian violinist Steven Staryk (born 1932) as the excellent soloist/concertmaster in Thomas Beecham’s stereo EMI recordings of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade and Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben. By contrast, his wide-ranging solo discography is a relatively low-profile affair involving many small labels, and next to nothing in print. Which is all the more reason to welcome this 1980/82 Beethoven Sonata cycle with pianist John Perry, one of the CBC label’s first all-digital productions.
At first hearing Centaur’s refurbished transfers reveal a full-bodied, reverberant soundstage and a strident patina that is more pronounced in some pieces than others. However, I reduced my graphic equalizer’s treble down a notch, and Staryk’s astringent timbre emerged less wiry, with the piano’s metallic overtones slightly appeased and the balance between instruments more in focus.
As a Beethoven team, Staryk and Perry prove more generalized yet no less sensitive than Dumay and Pires in their painstakingly fine-tuned cycle, while providing a more centrist, less confrontational ensemble aesthetic than Kremer/Argerich. Rather than present the works in more-or-less numeric or chronological order, Centaur sequences the three well-filled discs for maximum contrast of mood and tonality.
The performances offer much to admire and savor. Take, for example, Op. 96’s flexible lyricism, gorgeously matched first-movement trills, and the dark, viola-like timbre Staryk achieves in the slow-movement variations. Other variation movements are sharply characterized and, regarding tempo relationships, effortlessly unified, such as those in Op. 12 No. 1, Op. 30 No. 1, and Op. 47 (“Kreutzer”). The duo makes the most of the “Spring” sonata Scherzo’s off-kilter rhythmic displacements and sudden shifts in tonality, although the brisk and business-like opening movement will surprise listeners accustomed to genial lyricism. Conversely, I’d prefer bolder dynamic contrasts and harder-hitting accents in the first three sonatas’ outer movements, in keeping with the unbridled temperament that the youthful Beethoven loved to strut. By and large, chamber aficionados who value seasoned musicianship may wish to investigate this release as a supplement to the reference versions.
