Prokofiev:
Works for violin and piano
Label: Canary Classics [CC02]
Released: June 12, 2006
Orli Shaham, piano
Gil Shaham, violin
A busy virtuoso pianist, Sergei Prokofiev can be forgiven for producing considerably less music for violin the for piano. After all, he knew he could always find someone to play his piano pieces - himself.
But persuading prominent violinists to play a new sonata or concerto is not always the easiest thing to do, especially for a young composer just starting out. For an irreverent “futurist” like Prokofiev, whose quirky personality and icon-smashing music tended to annoy and alarm members of the establishment, this was even more of a challenge. Even so, the small body of music Prokofiev did compose for violin ranks among the most provocative and appealing written since 1900.
The Shahams play both equally well,
and the recording is stunning.
"They have entered Prokofiev's distinctive idiom … the sonatas emerge in brilliant, highly expressive performances..." — Gramophone
"The Shahams, brother and sister, make a formidable team. It's obvious throughout that they're entirely comfortable playing together, effortlessly accommodating any freedoms in timing and matching each other's tone and dynamics... highly expressive performances. The particularly wide dynamic range – of the recording as well as of the playing – here works decisively to the music's advantage. And, especially in the Cinq Mélodies, we hear some wonderfully subtle shades of expression: both players have clearly entered right into Prokofiev's distinctive idiom. They show the divergent natures of the two sonatas exceptionally vividly – Op 80 sombre and concentrated, Op 94 full of ebullient fantasy." — Gramophone Classical Music Guide 2010
"There is a great music on this disc, the two violin and piano sonatas ranking with Prokofiev's finest chamber music, the first especially. And there are brief, tuneful and mischievous ones. The Shahams play both equally well, and the recording is stunning."
— BBC Music Magazine