A Qobuz freebie. One word:
Whoa! I figured the recording was free, would be worth a quick listen or two, and then I could move on. I was wrong. Virgil Boutellis-Taft is amazing. The disc is half old stuff, half new stuff. The opening Komitas piece is nice and "exotic", and the Chausson is lovely and luxuriant. The Janacek is exceedingly well played, but lacks Moravian flavor like some other takes. Still, it's nothing to sneeze at. Then come a trio of new works. The Hossein and Kamangar pieces readily betray their non-Western influences without overwhelming the listener. (And dammit, now I have to investigate pianist-composer Tara Kamangar.) And then the
really good stuff arrives. I'd not heard of Philippe Hersant prior to listening to
Songs of the South for solo violin, but time nearly stopped when I listened. Here's solo violin music that at least compares qualitatively with the best music on this disc, and really just caught me off guard. It may be wrong to report that I found it at least as compelling as Bach's solo violin works at times, but I did. And then VBT delivers another surprise, with playing in Bartok's Romanian Folk Dances that sounds too good to be true. As with the Janacek, it rather lacks a rustic or folk feel, but instead sounds incredibly refined. VBT's tone is gorgeous, and some of his whisper-quiet
pianissimo playing is silence-the-hall good. The elegant, smooth, beautiful Debussy Violin Sonata caps off a kick-ass recording. Guillaume Vincent offers superb support, and sound is superb, but make no mistake, Virgil Boutellis-Taft is the star of this show, and he is an artist I will be looking out for. I may just have to buy his new release.
