St. John’s Violin “Concept Album” Disappoints

from the Amazon.com Web page for the recording being discussed

Key of A is the latest partnership of violinist Lara St. John with pianist Matt Herskowitz on her Ancalagon label. As might be guessed, the album couples two sonatas for violin and piano in the key of A major, which happen to have been composed at opposite ends of the nineteenth century. It begins with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Opus 47 (“Kreutzer”) sonata composed in 1803, followed by César Franck’s only sonata for violin and piano, composed in 1886.

This album is scheduled for release this coming Friday. However, as is the case with the Cantilena album discussed yesterday, the only product page created by Amazon.com is for digital download, probably because Amazon is currently trying to limit its physical shipments. The page allows for placing a pre-order. This time the pre-order consists of paying for the one track that is currently available (the third of the four movements of the Franck sonata) and then paying the remaining balance once the full album is released. The album also includes an “encore” performance, the last of Fritz Kreisler’s three Alt-Wiener Tanzweisen (old Viennese melodies), “Schön Rosmarin” (lovely Rosemary).

Sadly, St. John’s performance technique falls short of the imaginativeness of the concept more often than not. There are too many cases in which her pitch misses the mark by a disturbing distance, thus undermining the expressiveness of the music. The same can be said of the times when her phrasing seems to have more to do with getting all of her notes in place than in giving them meaningful overall shape. These shortcomings are most evident the the variations movement at the core of the Beethoven sonata, but they spring up across the entire duration of the album.

Herskowitz tends to come out ahead for making the best of the situation. Of course, the title of Opus 47 describes the piece as a sonata for piano and violin (in that order). Herskowitz definitely knows how to settle his business with Beethoven, and there is much to be gained from paying attention to how he does this. Nevertheless, he cannot rise above those moments when St. John’s shortcomings get in his way.

Given how many recordings of both of these sonatas are far more satisfying, this new release reminds me of a put-down from my days in the tech community that would describe some new idea as “filling a well-needed gap!”