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GRAMOPHONE (04/2015)
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Hungaroton
HCD32749  



Code-barres / Barcode : 5991813274922

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Reviewer:  Lindsay Kemp

Formed in 1981, Capella Savaria has the distinction not only of being the first period orchestra in Hungary, but perhaps the first in Eastern Europe as well. Their recorded repertoire has tended to skirt round the mainstream Baroque, so no doubt it was a pleasant change for them to find themselves in the studio in the company of Bach’s solo violin concertos. Note ‘solo’. This is not the usual offering of the two solo concertos with the ever-glorious D minor Double; instead, what we have here is the E major and A minor as expected, plus two reconstructed concertos thought to have been originally composed for violin but which survive only in later harpsichord concerto versions (where they appear in D minor and F minor respectively). Both have been recorded plenty of times before, but this particular coupling is, I think, not so common.

First impressions of these performances are of a bright and detailed sound, backed up by plenty of energy from the players. After a while, however, it becomes slightly oppressive: with the soloist rather close, and the harpsichord and archlute a smidge too present in the balance. The intimacy with Zsolt Kalló’s solo violin, moreover, is not always kind to him; though there is agility and quickness in his playing, it can lack grace and in places intonational accuracy, and he does rather saw at the opening bars of the D minor Concerto.

There are no interpretative quirks, beyond some unexpected but enlivening slurrings in the A minor Concerto, but I did find many of the tempos somewhat breathless, sometimes even rushed. Where Kalló does tend to get it right is in final movements, where he establishes a robustly pleasing sense of the dance. Not enough, however, to make this disc a strong recommendation.

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