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Shostakovich Debut CD
Anna Picard, Independent on Sunday, 6th August
2006
Hot on the heels of Leila Josefowicz’s polished
Warner Classics recording comes young British soloist Ruth Palmer’s
first disc for Quartz. Palmer is Josefowicz’s junior, but
such is the distinction of her musical intelligence that this disc
(and accompanying DVD) is a fearsome rival to the earlier release.
First, there’s the sound: wheezing, triumphant, sarcastic,
mournful. Then Palmer’s phrasing, which comes from the bones.
Under Benjamin Wallfisch, the Philharmonia accompany the Concerto
expertly, but the greater performance is of the Sonata, where Palmer
and Alexei Grynyuk convey an unbearable, complex sorrow.
Shostakovich Debut CD
Andrew Clements, Guardian
, 29th September 2006
In a year already replete with Shostakovich recordings, this one
deserves
special mention. Ruth Palmer is a young British violinist who trained
at the
Royal College of Music. She organised this recording herself, arranging
sponsorship and collaborating with Director Tim Meara on the half-hour
film
about Shostakovich, which comes on the accompanying DVD. There's
a whiff of
designer chic about the presentation, and none of it would be significant
if
the performances were not so outstanding. Palmer tears into the
ferociously
demanding First Concerto in a way that none of the other versions
released
this year can match for intensity or in the latter movements, for
poetic
grandeur - and with the Philharmonia clearly galvanised by her
playing, the
results are spine-tingling. The late Violin Sonata inhabits an
even more
inward-looking world than the concerto, but Palmer is equally assured
here,
too. Altogether this is one of the most impressive Shostakovich
discs to
have appeared during the centenary.
Shostakovich Debut CD
Julian Haylock, The Strad, November 2006
The Shostakovich centenary has inspired a flood of new recordings
of the A
minor Concerto, although none quite compares with the truly astonishing
account by the young Latvian violinist Baiba Skride (Sony, reviewed
in
June), who plays with a heart-rending intensity to surpass even
David
Oistrakh's world premiere recording for CBS with conductor Dimitri
Mitropoulos.
You have to immerse yourself fully in the First Concerto's forbiddingly
claustrophobic world of anguished metaphors to discover its inner
soul - and
young British violinist Ruth Palmer does so fearlessly in the opening
Notturno and third movement Passacaglia. There are times here when
she
appears to be merely breathing on her instrument, sharing half-whispered
correspondences of painful intimacy. Interpretatively speaking,
she is no
less impressive in the whiplash Scherzo and high-energy finale,
which she
dispaches with astonishing flair and accuracy. Palmer sustains
the most
pure and jewelled sound thoughout, supported to the hilt by the
Philharmonia, which plays with the greatest conviction under Benjamin
Wallfisch. In fact my only slight reservation about this sumptuously
engineered performance is Palmer's occasional reluctance to throw
care to
the wind and risk a few 'noises off' as she drives the music home.
The central Allegretto of the late Sonata also finds Palmer slightly
cushioning her vertical strokes and thereby taking some of the
sting out of
the music's tail. But make no mistake, this is remarkable playing
of
considerable stature and a magnificent achievement for a debut
album. Also
included is a strikingly memorable half-hour documentary that traces
Palmer's visit to Russia, graced by a series of powerful monochrome
images
and her own perceptive comments on the music. Highly recommended.
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