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Site review by Polly Nomial September 21, 2007
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Performance: Sonics (MC): |
A very enterprising and enjoyable disc.
Few discs are released that pair a 17th century composer with a recently departed member of the avant garde but this is one of them. Combining some gorgeous and sublime Biber with some highly stimulating and, in Arditti's hands, enjoyable Berio cannot have been attempted frequently but here works triumphantly.
The Berio and Biber numbers are alternated so that one is only momentarily comfortable in the current idiom before being uprooted by three centuries! The Berio is dominated by his Sequenza VIII for solo violin, played with great authority and conviction by Irvine Arditti (leader of the eponymous quartet for those who were wondering). The remainder are excerpts of his "Duetti per due violini", in which Arditti is joined by the violinist of Lyriarte, Rüdiger Lotte, who is clearly inspired by Arditti in his response to the music. All of the Berio is very thought provoking and brings constantly changing and fascinating textures - not the easiest listen perhaps but one of the better from the late 20th century.
The Biber is, of course, far more tonally conventional and for the most part presented on period instruments by Lyriarte. They are clearly a very fine ensemble who play with a passion and purity not normally associated with HIP. For all those doubt if historical instruments can sound as good as modern counterparts, then the final Biber work offers an interesting comparison when Arditti joins Lyriarte (Lotte swaps to his modern violin) for a sonata for 2 violins and continuo - here one wishes that Arditti was as confident in taking up a Baroque instrument as Lotte was taking up the modern version in the Berio for the tone is not nearly as beautiful or entrancing as the preceding violin and continuo works. For this reason only, I restrain myself from awarding 5 stars.
The sound is fantastic; clear, generous and very well defined - the identification of the two violins "sparring" from left to right is wonderful and it is hard to imagine the recording being better rendered.
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Copyright © 2007 John Broggio and SA-CD.net
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Review by JJ May 28, 2007 (2 of 4 found this review helpful)
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Performance: Sonics (S/MC): / |
La mise en parallèle de la musique pour violons de Biber (1644-1704) et de Berio (1925-2003) est ici d'un intérêt certain. Car le langage musical novateur de l'un (Biber) et celui moderniste de l'autre (Berio) se retrouvent souvent liés dans les œuvres que nous propose ce très bel enregistrement de l'ensemble Lyriarte accompagné par le violon solo d'Irvine Arditti. Débutant avec un premier duo de violons du compositeur italien intitulé Maurice en hommage à Maurice Fleuret, le programme se poursuit avec la Sonate N°5 pour violon et basse continue de Biber. Puis, c'est en alternance que nous retrouvons les œuvres des deux compositeurs où Berio, au travers de duos violonistiques, dresse des portraits éclairs de Bartók et Schnittke notamment. Quant à Biber, ses Sonates N°3 et 6 offrent un espace de réflexions dans lequel l'invention du discours musical ne tourne jamais au procédé. Ce parcours intelligent et sensuel à la fois s'achève avec Sequenza VIII pour violon solo de Berio et Partia III pour deux violons et basse continue de Biber. L'ensemble Lyriarte, composé de Rüdiger Lotter au violon baroque, Olga Watts au clavecin et Axel Wolf au luth, pare son discours musical de couleurs chaudes, mettant ainsi en lumière le rapprochement de deux univers différents, vibrant d'une seule et même corde, d'un seul et même élan au sein d'un même monde. Un SACD unique, attachant, rare et pour tout dire indispensable en regard d'une production discographique souvent en mal d'imagination.
Jean-Jacques Millo
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