Ilya Gringolts - Paganini (1999)

Seventeen-year-old Ilya Gringolts is the latest violin phenomenon to emerge from Russia. He has won the Paganini Competition in Genoa and many prizes in his native country. The music on this disc befits his youth, his radiant talent, and triumphant virtuosity. There is nothing he cannot do; he tosses off the most hair-raising pyrotechnics--multiple stops, runs at breakneck speeds, double harmonics--with consummate ease, reveling in his technical prowess; his tone shimmers and glows with unfailing beauty, purity and sweetness. Even more amazingly, he makes music out of these bravura pieces, creating atmosphere, mood, character, emotional contrast, with simple, genuine expressiveness. His playing has charm, humor, poise, romantic ardor, dramatic intensity, and, sensitive to Paganini's frequently operatic style, a singing, spoken quality: the Cantabile becomes a passionate love song, the Concerto's slow movement an Italian scena ed aria; its Finale glitters with joyful, sunny brilliance. He makes no cuts and plays the Moses-Fantasie with the G-string tuned two notes up, as indicated by Paganini. The pianist is excellent, the orchestra less so. -- Edith Eisler