Vladigerov; Poulenc; Seabourne - Violin Sonatas (Irina Borissova; Giacomo Battarino)

Information

Composer: Pancho Vladigerov; Francis Poulenc; Peter Seabourne

• Vladigerov - Violin Sonata in D major, Op. 1
• Poulenc - Violin Sonata, FP 119
• Seabourne - A Portrait and Four Nocturnes

Irina Borissova, violin

Giacomo Battarino, piano

Date: 2019

Label: Sheva Collection

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Review

Poulenc wasn’t instinctively drawn to the violin sonata: ‘The prima donna violin over arpeggiated piano nauseates me’, he’s reported to have said. Hard to guess, then, what he’d make of this curiously programmed recital, which places his solitary Violin Sonata between the Bulgarian Pancho Vladigerov – a Romantic with a capital R – and Peter Seabourne’s homage to Chopin, who pretty much patented that whole lyrical-sentimental idiom.

But it actually makes a strangely satisfying sequence, and one that shows the particular qualities of these performers to good advantage. Some adjustment will be needed at first: the acoustic is close and boxy, and the piano – apparently a Steinway Model B – initially sounds synthetic and hard-edged, a bit like a clavinova. Nor does the recording flatter the upper register of Borissova’s violin (though she plays with fine body and bite on the lower strings). Once the ear has adjusted it’s easier to appreciate the pair’s rapport and sense of drama; perfect for the sweeping vistas of Vladigerov’s 1914 Sonata, a work that could easily have emerged from Vienna or Berlin that same year.

But that brittle, upfront sound is actually an asset in the Poulenc, which the pair approach in restless, sometimes savage strokes of colour – Borissova’s plangent double-stopping in the second movement’s homage to Lorca is sultry without being sentimental. And it’s highly effective, too, in Seabourne’s A Portrait and Four Nocturnes: not, Seabourne insists, a sort of ‘Chopiniana’ but an expressionistic meditation on romanticism itself, etched in silvery harmonics and midnight-black clouds of piano tone, and realised with hallucinatory clarity by Borissova and Battarino. The composer (who co-produced the disc) must feel gratified at a performance of such character and conviction.

-- Richard Bratby, Gramophone

More reviews:

https://artmusiclounge.wordpress.com/2019/07/12/borissova-plays-vladigerov-poulenc-seabourne/

https://limelightmagazine.com.au/reviews/vladigerov-%E2%80%A2-poulenc-%E2%80%A2-seabourne-violin-sonatas-irina-borissova-giacomo-battarino/

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Irina Borissova was born in Bulgaria in 1985. She at the National School of Music "Lubomir Pipkov" in Sofia with Josiph Radionov, then at the Hochschule für Musik Mainz with Anne Shih. As a chamber musician, Borissova gives concerts with international artists at renowned festivals, and has also acted as a soloist and director of the chamber music ensemble Mainzer Virtuosi. She has a special focus on the interpretation of modern music, and has recorded some contemporary works (including the world premieres) for the Sheva Collection label. Borissova teaches violin at the Collegium musicum of the JGU Mainz.

https://www.collegium-musicum.uni-mainz.de/irina-borissova/

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