A moving portrait of a Swiss master at his most intimate
THE STRAD RECOMMENDS
The Strad Issue: October 2026
Description: A moving portrait of a Swiss master at his most intimate
Musicians: Boris Brovtsyn (violin) Diana Ketler (piano)
Works: Bloch: Violin Sonatas: no.1, no.2 ‘Poème mystique’; Suite no.1 for solo violin; Baal Shem
Catalogue number: NAXOS 8574728
The works chosen for this arresting disc represent the whole spectrum of music that Bloch wrote for his own instrument, the violin. The sonatas could not be more different. After a negative reaction to his First Sonata, whose aggressive, ominous character could only have brought back to its audience the horrors of the recently ended World War I, Bloch responded with the single-movement no. 2, inspired by his dream of the world ‘as it should be’, full of ecstasy and idealism.
The musicians give a totally committed, expansive performance of this sonata, aptly titled ‘Poème mystique’, so that at times their playing almost seems to burst the confines of their instruments. The stratospherically high violin lines soar and the double-stopped trills seem to herald a mystical presence.
Whereas Gregorian chant is turned into lyrical melody in this work, it is Bloch’s passionate Judaism that is at the forefront of the suite Baal Shem. Brovtsyn plays the deeply penitential, recitative-like ‘Vidui’ with real conviction and ‘Simchas Torah’ overflows with festive joy.
The recording, made in a Berlin church, is bright and clear, with a particularly pure unaccompanied violin sound in the late neo-Baroque Suite no.1, sparer but gracefully and musically phrased.
JANET BANKS
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