Word: sollscher
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Deutsche Grammophon's new release "Paganini for Two" with violinist Gil Shaham and guitarist Goran Sollscher advertises itself as "Italian Music for Violin & Guitar-Perfect Company for Relaxing at Home." Recently breaking Billboard's classical top 20 as well as Tower's classical top 10, this recording's success continues a trend in popular classical music which arguably started with the fuss over Henryk Gorecki's third symphony, and includes the more recent "international phenomenon" of Chant...
...cover photographs reveals Shaham & Sollscher in a blue-washed cafe--a rather clumsy allusion to Vincent Youman's "Tea for Two"--with their respective instruments, complemented by coffee cups and an open score. But, the intimacy which looks rather staged on cover appears very convincingly in the actual playing. Deutsche Grammophon's sound engineers have even gone so far as to use a new 21 bit recording technique dubbed...
...might be expected with Paganini's work in general, the violin usually has the more interesting of the two parts, and I compliment Sollscher for his consistently sensitive playing. Shaham is right at home in the genre, and considering his knuckle-busting recording of Wieniawski's first violin concerto, the works are but child's play for such a player gifted with a singular virtuoso technique. To his credit, Shaham avoids adding excessive schmaltz, and concentrates on making solid music with the material...
Shaham and Sollscher next chose to record three of a cycle of six "sonatas" (perhaps more accurately termed sonatinas), and these are clearly for the purpose of highlighting the violin. The extended left hand pizzicato passage near the end of the first sonata is mind-boggling, and Shaham handles the famous passage of thirds found in the latter part of the sixth sonata with uncommon finesse...
Throughout the disc, only in the Romance of the Grand sonata does Sollscher ever take the spotlight. Shaham makes for a very responsive accompanist, and even in a very delicate environment, Sollscher manages to avoid sounding tentative or hesitant. It is a pity that Sollscher was not featured more prominently, but the disc first and foremost a showcase for Gil Shaham...
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