Patricia Kopatchinskaja: Plaisirs illuminés
Alpha

Plaisirs Illuminé is officially violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja's release, but it's anything but a solo project. As integral to the recording is the ensemble Camerata Bern, and cellist Sol Gabetta also makes a key contribution. That said, it's Kopatchinskaja who is the centre around which the others constellate. The album title derives from Dali's 1929 painting and is also the title of one of the three primary works, with Les Plaisirs illuminés by Spanish composer Francisco Coll featured alongside Sándor Veress's Musica concertante per 12 archi and Alberto Ginastera's Concerto per corde, Op. 33. Rounding out the set-list are short pieces by Bartók, Kurtág, Ligeti, and others. The playing dazzles throughout, making Kopatchinskaja's latest release for Alpha a thoroughly rewarding affair.

As varied as its selections are, there are discernible connections between the composers. As Lukas Fierz points out in liner notes, all belong to the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and are linked by relationships to Bartók (1881-1945) and his “folkloristic reimagining” of music; further to that, the Hungarian-born Swiss composer Veress (1907-92) was a student of Bartók's and himself a teacher to Ligeti (1923-2006) and Kurtág (b. 1926).

Comprised of strings, woodwinds, piano, and percussion, the twenty-member Camerata Bern plays with fastidious attention to detail, which does much to enhance the performances of Kopatchinskaja and, on Coll's Les Plaisirs illuminés, Gabetta. Written in 1965-66 for the then-nascent ensemble, Veress's neoclassical concertante inaugurates the release with an “Improvisation” featuring head-turning cadenzas. While Kopatchinskaja distinguishes the movement with a virtuosic solo turn that draws on a panoply of string techniques, Camerata Bern matches her performance in its skilful rendering of Veress's score. Whereas the central, nachtmusik-styled “Meditation” is suitably ponderous, the closing “Action” lives up to its title with rapid, serpentine crosscurrents.

Bartók's influence on Ginastera's concerto is palpable, during the opening “Variazioni per i Solisti” certainly. Hungarian flavours seep into the material during one passage, but the movement's more notable for the melismatic beauty of Kopatchinskaja's solo episode. With its slashing strings, the “Scherzo fantastico” also recalls Bartók, as does the anguished “Adagio angoscioso,” but the work's (and album's) most harrowing moment comes when “Finale furioso” concludes with an ear-shattering scream.

Camerata Bern typically plays without a conductor but for Coll's Les Plaisirs illuminés the composer took on the role in his first appearance on the podium. His 2018 work distance itself from the album's other pieces in weaving flamenco touches into its design, with castanets, for example, audible during the fast-paced opening. While the work isn't a transcription in musical terms of Dali's surreal painting, it does dazzle the senses with brisk changes in tempo and mood. Gabetta makes her expressive presence felt as the soloing partner to Kopatchinskaja, and the work, progressing as it does through contemplative, spirited, and, yes, seemingly Bartók-flavoured passages, is made all the better by their co-presence.

The violinist pairs with one or two others for the Kurtág (“Jelek VI,” from Signs, Games and Messages), Bartók (“Pizzicato,” from 44 Duos for Two Violins), and Ligeti (Balada si joc, based on two Romanian folk songs) miniatures, each of which provides respite from the multi-movement works. Two other pieces bring the release to an arresting finish, the first Coll's “LalulaLied,” which sees Kopatchinskaja accompanying herself while whooping and hissing like some crazed creature (he wrote the piece for her after learning she also performs voice-related material such as Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire and Ligeti's Mysteries of the Macabre), and a brief improv featuring Camerata Bern rather convincingly simulating birdsong.

If the shorter pieces are the less consequential of the eight presented, they're nevertheless worthy inclusions, not only for building on the range encompassed by the primary works but for adding extra colour; the spirit of levity the closing pair brings to the release isn't unwelcome either. At nearly seventy-five minutes, the wide-ranging release more than justifies the price of admission.

February 2021