Ernest Bloch’s violin works are not nearly as well known as his compositions for cello, in which instrument he found an excellent medium for his “Jewish” writing (Kol Nidrei, Schelomo, and From Jewish Life come to mind immediately). But the influence of Jewish culture and history pervades much of his work for violin, too, particularly in the Baal-Shem (Three Pictures of Chassidic Life), Abodah, and Suite Hebraique heard here. Unfortunately, German violinist Latica Honda-Rosenberg never quite latches onto Bloch’s idiom: she treats his choices of melody, intervals, and accents as if they were merely eccentric flourishes found in some lollipop encore piece. The larger structure falls limp, and Avner Arad’s strong piano accompaniment isn’t enough to rescue it. In the Sonata No. 1, her approach is fast and furious, but the unrelenting aggression in the opening Agitato never changes its face. All of this is not to say that the young violinist (a second-prize winner at 1998’s Tchaikovsky competition) doesn’t possess a formidable technique; indeed she does, and shows it off best in the Suite No. 2, where the influence of Bach’s solo partitas is obvious. It’s just that she hasn’t quite shaped an interesting interpretation of Bloch’s music.
The sound quality, particularly for the violin, is definitely sub par: the disc sounds as if Honda-Rosenberg were recorded in a tin can–with the microphones far away. It seems that Arte Nova didn’t bother to pay close attention to the packaging, either: there are typos in the annotation and, on my copy at least, the spine reads “Complete Works for Cello and Piano”. (In my book, budget shouldn’t mean shoddy.) While a chance to hear this underserved repertoire is greatly appreciated–and this disc does contain all of Bloch’s music for violin and piano–this isn’t a recording for the ages.
