Recent reissues featuring violinist Josef Suk have helped edge this musician back into his well-deserved limelight. Purity of tone and sobriety of interpretive outlook characterize Suk’s 1970 EMI recordings of Bach’s solo sonatas and partitas. Compared to Grumiaux’s burgundy-hued sonority, Milstein’s broad brush strokes, Shumsky’s impeccable intonation, or Szigeti’s raw-nerve intensity, Suk’s virtues don’t leap out at you. Part of this is due to the violinist’s undemonstrative surface style, with its very spare vibrato and conservative tempos. At first hearing, for instance, you might miss the winged propulsion Heifetz brings to the fugues and the quicker movements. Yet Suk’s steady deliberation allows Bach’s difficult-to-voice polyphony to come through with organic clarity and momentum. Likewise, Suk avoids rubato extremes and agogic affectations. He creates tension and release through subtleties of dynamic shading and accentuation, while his phrasing blooms with harmonic awareness. Every once in a while a note misses its intonation mark, but it matters little in playing of this stature. It’s good to have these performances domestically available for the first time, especially at EMI’s two-for-one price, and the sonics convey warmth and presence.
