My wife has had it:
"I've had it with all these babe violinists [you should hear the ironic tone she gets!] trying to out-Bach each other!"
And it IS odd that they all seem to gravitate towards Bach, despite the divergence in the rest of their repertoire.
This post is occasioned by the new Hyperion recording of the Sonatas and Partitas by Alina Ibragimova, whose recording of the Szymanowski violin works (also on Hyperion) was mighty fine. But it seems Ibragimova had to prove her babe violinist credentials by entering the unaccompanied Bach sweepstakes. Based on her Szymanowski recording, I had high hopes for Ibragimova's new Bach set.
Was I ever disappointed!
I don't know what it is, but some otherwise normal violinists are easily influenced by the cult of HIP, and Ibragimova is the most extreme case of this yet. If you listen to her performance of the Chaconne, you will wonder why that work was ever considered a masterpiece: this has to be the most inward, mousy, colorless, and meek performance I have ever heard. It goes without saying that there is no vibrato, but there's also no range, no tone, and no emotion. Bleah! And to add insult to injury, there's not even any PICTORIAL in the Hyperion booklet!
OK, so Ibragimova is securely in last place in the babe-violinist unaccompanied Bach sweepstakes. Also near the bottom is JJ (Janine Jansen - D-minor Partita only) for many of the same faults as Ibragimova - an unconscionable sackcloth and ashes approach.
Things move up quite a bit with Hilary Hahn's single disc (E-major and D-minor Partitas, C-major Sonata). With Hahn's performances, we've finally moved into legitimate areas of expressivity and warmth, unlike the antiseptic, paint-by-the-musicologists'-numbers approach of Ibragimova and JJ.
Then there's Lara St. John's disc of the D-minor Partita and C-major Sonata - you know, the one with the "fun" cover (that's her description!). One of the Amazon customers describes these performances as "bold and powerful" - yup, I would agree. The only time I've seen St. John live, she definitely had horse hair coming off the bow by the end of the performance. (I have not heard St. John's redux recording of the Bach unaccompanied violin music, but I can definitely say that the booklet cover on the new recording is not as "fun"!)
Better still is Lisa (or, as she was known at the time, Elizabeth) Batiashvili's recording of the B-minor Partita. In some ways, Lisa is just the best - what a great tone she gets from her Engleman Stradivarius, and the intellegence behind the playing (the way the music is phrased, etc.) is stunning, and yet does not preclude the evocation of the most intense emotions from this music!
That leaves J-Fi (Julia Fischer). What can I say? I think this recording is destined to become a classic, not only for her virtuosity, but also for Pentatone's hugely impressive engineering (best heard on MC SACD). Listen to how her tone caresses the ear - marvelous! J-Fi has said, "I'm not an 'authentic' player - we are playing for people of the twenty-first century, not the eighteenth century!" Right on - you go, girl!
Anyway, to sum up, there are many excellent babe violinist recordings of the Bach unaccompanied violin music. However, I would stay away from JJ, and, especially, this new one from Ibragimova.
