Patricia Kopatchinskaja - Deux - The Guardian

Patricia Kopatchinskaja is a violinist whose performances celebrate the act of living in the moment – something hard to capture on disc, but not impossible. Her recent recordings have seen her shaking up Schubert’s Death and the Maiden with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and taking a crowbar to accepted notions of good taste on Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. Nor is there anything ordinary about this latest CD, a recital with the pianist Polina Leschenko that is a feast of edgy, risk-filled music-making. Leschenko, a protege of Martha Argerich, is Kopatchinskaja’s equal in energy and purpose throughout. They set about Poulenc’s 1943 Sonata with playing that is fierce and furious, but tempering its anger with wit. It’s not always pretty, but it’s always alive – and it’s always going somewhere; this is playing that looks around the corners of the music and is open to what’s coming next. Similarly, Bartók’s 1922 Sonata No 2 bristles with energy but also glows with mercurially changing colour; they never settle for expressing mere harshness or aggression. In between the sonatas, Leschenko leavens the mood delightfully with Ernst von Dohnányi’s fleet-footed arrangement of the Waltz from Délibes’s ballet Coppélia. Facebook Twitter Pinterest The grand finale is Ravel’s Tzigane: 10 minutes of slow-burn momentum in which the first four are for violin alone. It features some phenomenal, multi-timbred playing by Kopatchinskaja in particular, and is an irresistible sign-off from this free-spirited pair.