<<  -- 2 --  Howard Smith    AN AUDACIOUS PERFORMER

The other major item is Michael Radulescu's 'Suonata for solo viola' -- 63-year-old Radulescu is best known as a virtuoso organist, choral director, music historian and educator. Here however is a work in which the haunting, disembodied line is interrupted and finally taken over by pained, increasingly furious interjections leading to a gentle chordal summation [listen -- track 5, 7:45-9:19].

Kreisler's five-minute Recitativo en Scherzo Caprice betrays little of the Viennese gemütlichkeit associated with the hugely revered Austrian violinist/composer. Instead we hear a taxing virtuoso showpiece -- a solo display which again, Zemtsov takes in his stride.

His well-matched accompanist, Irina Shishkina, rejoins the viola for the brief 'Desire, Muzurka and Prelude' of Alexander Scriabin, then, similarly brief, the Castle Duivenvoorde live audience hears Mikhail Kugel's defiant solo essay in power and lyricism titled Prelude Ysaye. Next M Zemtsov performs Evgueni Zemtsov's colossal four-minute Melodia, a tailor-made 'demo' for overwhelming expression, weighty multiple-stopping, and the fullest dynamic compass [listen -- track 9, 1:19-2:32].

At a guess Evgueni is Zemtsov senior, Mikhail Zemtsov rides a wave of critical acclaim, while twelve-year-old Dana, heard here in a neatly accomplished Handel Concerto movement, represents the ascendant generation.

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