Solo sonata by the young Schneeberger

This CD tells the story of a unique encounter between two violinists: Dmitry Smirnov, who was born in St. Petersburg in 1994 and recently won second prize at the ARD Competition in Munich, and the eminent Swiss master violinist Hansheinz Schneeberger (1926-2019), who composed throughout his life, something only a few friends knew about. Shortly before Schneeberger's death, Smirnov rehearsed solo sonatas by Béla Bartók and Sándor Veress with him; he later also helped to sift through Schneeberger's compositional estate. A unique find was the Sonata for solo violin by the 16-year-old violinist-composer at the time of writing, whose mentors included Walter Kägi (to whom the sonata is also dedicated, see below) and Willy Burkhard. With unbridled playfulness and restless movement, the quarter-hour work makes the most of countless violinistic refinements. In this premiere recording, Smirnov interprets it congenially, in a post-creative spirit - he has internalized Schneeberger's music-making, especially his art of bowing, in a very short time.

This CD also contains two milestones of the solo violin literature, which Dmitry Smirnov tackles fearlessly. The young interpreter is very much at home with the audacious style of Béla Bartók's late sonata (Sz 117). He certainly succeeds better in the goblin-like, grotesque elements and the breakneck leaps of this composition than in the lyrical passages. His interpretations of microtonality and time mass, which Bartók did not define conclusively, sound credible. In Johann Sebastian Bach's 2nd Partita in D minor (BWV 1004), the dance-like style predominates in Smirnov's playing, which Hansheinz Schneeberger is known to have been very fond of. The decision to play the individual movements quasi attacca and the very fresh tempi of the Courante and the Chaconne may not be to the liking of all listeners, but they do not detract from the great persuasive power of Smirnov's interpretation.