JAVS Fall 2007

ro the urbane music of Cole Porter (From This Moment On, Begin the Beguine and Anything Goes) , and is helped by the winy arrangements of Bunch, who is himself a violist. Like Deborah Holden-Holloway's Gershwin transcriptions, they are in the tra dition of the "free arrangements" of Borisovsky or Primrose, and bring this highly enjoyable CD to irs foot-rapping close. Baroque Preludes, Dances and Fugues. Scott Slapin, viola. Eroica Classical Recordings JDT3304. for unaccompanied violin and their less well-known cousin, the Parcita for solo flute. They are all performed on the viola, in a tour de force by Scott Slapin. Amazigly, rhis is Slapin's second stab at this music. I am nor familiar with his first recording of some ten years ago, bur the present one is an impressive record of his long occu pation with some of the greatest music ever wrirten. The technical hurdles in which this pieces aboud are even more treacherous on the bigger instrument, bur Slapin emerges almost unscathed from the fugues and the Chaconne, even if one can disagree with some of his solutions ro the arpeggiato pas sages. At some places (especially in the dance movements), the rubaro and agogic get in the way of the musjc's flow, but never leading to mannerism. I like very much the way some movements segue into the following ones, like the Chaconne almost emerging from rhe preceding Gigue. Like Heifetz - and almost nobody else - Slapin Behind the above title hide our old friends, Bach's Sonatas and Partitas

plays a trill in sixths at the half close before the A minor fugue. He has a welcome light touch for the third Parcita, which can potentially sound heavy-footed a fifth lower. The flute Partita, a work of a lighter character, is also played a fifth lower, in D minor. That there is room for it at all is due to Slapin's fresh tempi and to the omission of some repeats. The recording reproduces beautifully the masculine tone of Slapin's Iizuka viola. Recital on the Road: What We Did On Our Summer Evacuation. Hindemith, Bruni, Paganini, Bach, Rolla. Scott Slapin, Tanya Solomon, violas. Eroica Classical Recordings JDT 3265.

Solomon are a tried and true musical partnership, and their repartee in these two agreeable pieces is admirable, with echoing phrases tossed back and forth between the players. ln Hindemith's op. 25 Nr. l, lapin surely breaks a speed record in tl1e (in)famous fourth movement, which appropriately segues into the finale . Here Slapin unfortu nately perpetuates a misprint 11 bars before the end (it should be a trill between D flat and E flat). More famous players have fallen into this particular trap, bur sure ly by now word should have got around! More's the pity, because the performance as a whole is beautifully shaped and passionate ly played.

The CO's title is to be taken literally: Slapin and Solomon (husband and wife) fled hur ricane Katrina and spent six months on the road until they could get back to inspect the remains of their house. This music is- as Slapin writes - "what kept us goes about review ing or even cnnstz ing a CD made under such condj tions, bur for what it's worth I must say that I enjoyed the duos by Bruni and Rolla best. Slapin and going". I don't know how one

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