This is the second of a pair of recordings of Polish music by violinist Jennifer Pike, motivated partly by her own part-Polish ancestry but also by an appreciation of the largely unknown music being presented. The works here are from the 20th century, slightly later than those on the earlier album, The Polish Violin. Karol Szymanowski is not an unknown, but the arch-Romantic Violin Sonata, Op. 9, is not commonly played, and Pike's elegant tone, bringing to mind Henryk Szeryng, offers a nice foil to its heated quality. Real ...
Read More
This is the second of a pair of recordings of Polish music by violinist Jennifer Pike, motivated partly by her own part-Polish ancestry but also by an appreciation of the largely unknown music being presented. The works here are from the 20th century, slightly later than those on the earlier album, The Polish Violin. Karol Szymanowski is not an unknown, but the arch-Romantic Violin Sonata, Op. 9, is not commonly played, and Pike's elegant tone, bringing to mind Henryk Szeryng, offers a nice foil to its heated quality. Real virtuosity, for both Pike and accompanist Petr Limonov, rules in the Trois caprices de Paganini, Op. 40, and between that and the sonata is a richly imaginative miniature, La berceuse d'Aïtacho Enia, Op. 52. Next comes a real rarity, the Violin Sonata of the woman known as Poldowski and under several other names, including Irena Regina Wieniawski (she was Henryk Wieniawski's daughter) but apparently not under the name Irène Poldowski given in some online sources for this music. The...
Read Less