Continuing with my survey of up and coming young violinists, tonight we'll look at Latvian sensation Baiba Skride, and by the way thank goodness for Rhapsody and their increasing selection of new classical titles. It's great to be able to hear all these musicians without having to actually lay down the coin for the CD.
Anyways, 25 year old Baiba Skride is another one of those celebrated European violinists who is just now starting to make a name for herself in America. The problem is that when you look at her picture you can't help but thinking "uh-oh, not another overated, glamour queen violinist. Sheesh..." There's no question that she is quite a beauty, but fortunately she has some talent to go along with her good looks.
Mind you, she is young, and lacks the fit and finish of her more mature counterparts, but from the little I've heard it seems she can play. She has three CD's out for Sony Classical, but the only one available on Rhapsody is her W.A. Mozart & M. Haydn Violinkonzerte. I don't know how much you can tell about a musician from just one CD, but she does a fine job with all the pieces on this CD.
Unfortunately for Skride, after listening to Julia Fischer play Mozart I think it's hard for any violinist not suffer in comparison. Skride plays a very spirited Mozart Violin Concerto No.3, but she just doesn't play with the same joy or the achingly beautiful and delicate lines that Fischer does. Particularly in the adagio you begin to notice that Skride sounds at times a little too deliberate, and at other times a little too precious, though always very expressive and musical. It's tough - I like Skride's playing, but at the same time I can't forget that Fischer plays this better.
Skride's current release is of the Shostakovich and Janacek Violin Sonatas, and there again she is going to have a tough act to follow. If you haven't heard Leila Josefowicz's Shostakovich CD, then go buy it and you'll know what I mean. Maybe I'll do a review of it sometime, but for now let me just say that Skride's gonna have to be awful damn good to make me forget Josefowicz's rendition of the Shostakovich Sonata. Which isn't really fair - she should be judged soley on her performance, but how can you ignore Josefowicz's performance. I don't know. I guess the only thing to do is buy the Skride CD and give it a listen. That's why it's currently at the top of my wish list.
And you know what, with all the talented new players coming along these days, this just may be shaping up as the golden age of the violin. One weekend last month we had no less that four violinists giving concerts and recitals around the Bay Area, and coming up we have Christian Tetzlaff coming to town to play with MTT and the SF Symphony, and, wouldn't you know it, Baiba Skride giving a recital with her sister Lauma at the Palace of the Legion of Honor. After Tetzlaff's really awful performance of the Stravinsky Violin Concerto on the SF Symphony's Opening Night I don't know if I'm really anticipating another appearance by him, but Skride might be worth a trip up to the city (in fairness to Tetzlaff, the Chronicle reported that he had to read the notes off the score as he gave that performance, so apparently he hadn't had time to properly prepare. Still, it was truly awful. I didn't see it, I just heard it on the radio)
So that's Skride in a nutshell. Yeah, another violin babe, but this one's got some chops. And if I go see her, I'll be sure to bring my camera.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
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