Britten - Lachrymae, Hindemith - Sonata Op 11 No 4, Shostakovich Sonata Op 147
BRITTEN Lachrymae
HINDEMITH Sonata Op 11 No 4
SHOSTAKOVICH Sonata Op147
Paul Silverthorne - Viola
John Constable - Piano
Koch International Classics 3-7270 2 H1
The Strad (UK)
"Paul Silverthorne is one of Britain's best-known soloists, a notable exponent of modern music and a principal in the London Symphony Orchestra. His recording of the Brahms Sonatas is one of the finest. For this programme he employs his magnificent 'Archinto' Strad. He and John Constable are well recorded in a church acoustic...Hearing Silverthorne in recital recently, I was impressed by his structural grasp of everything in his programme; and so it is here... "
Tully Potter
Fono Forum (Germany)
"Musik der Trauer und des Abscheids, durch die der Atem der Jahrhunderte weht: von Britten Reflexionen über Dowlands berühmte Song, von Schostakowich - geschrieben in seinem Totesjahr 1975 - über Beethovens Mondscheinsonate. Mit einer außergewöhnlich fesselnden Konzentration zwingen die beiden herrvorragenden, gleichwertigen Interpreten In den Bann deiser ganz eigenen Ausdruckwelt der Melancholie. Paul Silverthornes samtweiche, klangesättigte Tongebung - er speilt eine Stradivari - mischt sich harmonisch mit dem kontureichen speil von John Constable auf dem Steinwayflügel. Eine bemerkenswerte Interpretation.
Music of sorrow and farewell, pervaded by the spirit of centuries: Britten's reflections on Dowland's famous song and Shostakovich's on Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata - written in 1975, his final year. With exceptionally demanding concentration two equally outstanding performers draw us into this unique expressive world of melancholy. Paul Silverthorne's soft-velvety, richly sonorous articulation - he plays on a Stradivarius - blends harmoniously with the sculpted variety of John Constable's piano playing on a Steinway grand. A remarkable performance! "
I.Allihn
Fanfare (USA)
"The performances by Silverthorne and Constable are uniformly excellent... This is a wonderful recital. "
Robert Carl
Record Review, BBC Radio 3 (UK)
"...the sheer beauty and chameleon-like changeability of (Silverthorne's) tone... Constable gets near the withdrawn sparseness of Britten's own accompanying style. Thus by their own route - a sort of imploded intensity - the two achieve their objective; and very effective it is. "
Classical Net Review
"I've never heard a better violist than Paul Silverthorne, and that includes any well-known great player you care to mention. Above all, he is a superb chamber-music partner. All these performances sound like the conversation of equals. Neither Silverthorne nor his extremely subtle accompanist, John Constable, dominate, and in these works, that's as it should be...(Shostakovich, 2nd Mov.) Silverthorne is especially effective here, eliciting from his viola both a taut, inward thread of sound and a cry of rage. Furthermore, you find yourself in the middle of that cry, with little idea of how you were moved here... (Shostakovich 3rd Mov.) Silverthorne and Constable seldom reach even a mezzo-forte, and yet the viola's singing line has deep contour and shade with again a great variety of tone color from both players.
Both Silverthorne and Constable set a very high standard in all these works. As I've said before, Silverthorne makes the viola exciting to listen to - a rare ability. They're the best I've heard in both the Britten and the Hindemith, and think them the equal of Bashmet and Richter (on MK) in the Shostakovich. "
Steve Schwartz