Shaham and Sollsher Top All the Charts

Deutsche Grammophon's new release "Paganini for Two" with violinist Gil Shaham and guitarist Goran Sollscher advertises itself as "Italian Music for Violin & Guitar-Perfect Company for Relaxing at Home." Recently breaking Billboard's classical top 20 as well as Tower's classical top 10, this recording's success continues a trend in popular classical music which arguably started with the fuss over Henryk Gorecki's third symphony, and includes the more recent "international phenomenon" of Chant.

Put simply, extremes in classical music are no longer in vogue. The casual classical music public is no longer fascinated with the blatant neuroticism and psychic distress found in Mahler, for example, but seeks relatively non-offensive music. The unsubtle may call it chewing gum for the mind, but both Gorecki's symphony and Deutsche Grammophon's recent effort contain very real musical gems.

The cover photographs reveals Shaham & Sollscher in a blue-washed cafe--a rather clumsy allusion to Vincent Youman's "Tea for Two"--with their respective instruments, complemented by coffee cups and an open score. But, the intimacy which looks rather staged on cover appears very convincingly in the actual playing. Deutsche Grammophon's sound engineers have even gone so far as to use a new 21 bit recording technique dubbed "4D."

Technical labels aside, the sound is quite remarkable. There is little of the artificial aftertaste that I find with Telarc's 21 bit sound (and to a lesser extent, Sony's 21 bit Super Bit Mapping Technique), although the warmth of the sound is not always consistent, now is it always as viscerally satisfying as some of the products developed using traditional recording methods.

As might be expected with Paganini's work in general, the violin usually has the more interesting of the two parts, and I compliment Sollscher for his consistently sensitive playing. Shaham is right at home in the genre, and considering his knuckle-busting recording of Wieniawski's first violin concerto, the works are but child's play for such a player gifted with a singular virtuoso technique. To his credit, Shaham avoids adding excessive schmaltz, and concentrates on making solid music with the material he has.

Though Paganini's music by its very nature is not profound, one finds less of Paganini's naturally extroverted nature in his writing for violin and guitar. We see more of an introspective bent than one might expect from the composer of such flashy showpieces as Le streghe and the first violin concerto, both touchstones of technical facility. But, those looking for violinist pyrotechnics certainly will not be disappointed--Shaham has ample opportunity to flex his violinist technique, and he dose so impressively, yet tastefully.

During the first work on the disc, Sonata concertata, we see a dilaogue that develop between violin and guitar, and while not terribly profound, it is still rather charming.

Shaham and Sollscher next chose to record three of a cycle of six "sonatas" (perhaps more accurately termed sonatinas), and these are clearly for the purpose of highlighting the violin. The extended left hand pizzicato passage near the end of the first sonata is mind-boggling, and Shaham handles the famous passage of thirds found in the latter part of the sixth sonata with uncommon finesse.

Throughout the disc, only in the Romance of the Grand sonata does Sollscher ever take the spotlight. Shaham makes for a very responsive accompanist, and even in a very delicate environment, Sollscher manages to avoid sounding tentative or hesitant. It is a pity that Sollscher was not featured more prominently, but the disc first and foremost a showcase for Gil Shaham.

For the showcase work, Paganini swiped the theme of his "Moses" Variations from a Rossini opera, and spun a half-dozen or so flavors, all to be played on a single string. Shaham's technique is evidently as facile with one string as it is with four, resulting in remarkably few signs of strain throughout the entire piece. He eschews the traditional scordatura (tuning the G string up to a B-flat, in this case), and refreshingly emphasizes a darker tonality than usually encountered with this piece.

Rounding off the work is Paganini's Moto perpetuo composed in the context of an era obsessed with finding a perpetual motion machine. Fortunately for violinists, Paganini's perpetual motion piece does have an end. Though Shaham sets no speed records here, falling shy of Michael Rabin's definitive account by about 15 seconds, the clarity that he achieves amidst the unceasing cascade of notes will set the standard for some time to come.

I am hesitant to brand a final judgment on Shaham's playing, given that it has yet to be tested seriously outside of his specialty of technical bravura. But, his newly minted exclusive partnership with Deutsche- Grammophon has certainly had an auspicious start.