Franck - Violin Sonata
Recorded by Susan Fancher’s on 'In Two Worlds'.
Good autopanning and interesting microtonality begin this haunting work by Mark Engebretson. Soprano lines are weirdly effective, maintaining a lovely tone even when playing in the tuning cracks and executing the more vulgar sounding extended techniques. There is a measure of freedom in the sound, whilst keeping control of the instrument. Breathy hissings and shimmerings lead into a detuned, electronically manipulated section with delay. The latter part of this section functions better, sometimes the phrasing is a little too classical at the opening, when in fact the cadenza needs to sound odder and less ‘placed’. A slightly worrying masked swing feel emerges, but mostly the material holds together and the piece doesn’t slip into pseudo-jazz silliness. The panning drone works well every time it returns because of the irregular stereo movement, it doesn’t simply undulate predictably from one side to the other. On the subject of undulation, Fancher’s vibrato is very musical, varying its depth and pace to fit the music really successfully. The ending is a pleasingly wimpy affair, petering out rather pathetically but actually rounding off this delightfully strange piece rather well.
Good autopanning and interesting microtonality begin this haunting work by Mark Engebretson. Soprano lines are weirdly effective, maintaining a lovely tone even when playing in the tuning cracks and executing the more vulgar sounding extended techniques. There is a measure of freedom in the sound, whilst keeping control of the instrument. Breathy hissings and shimmerings lead into a detuned, electronically manipulated section with delay. The latter part of this section functions better, sometimes the phrasing is a little too classical at the opening, when in fact the cadenza needs to sound odder and less ‘placed’. A slightly worrying masked swing feel emerges, but mostly the material holds together and the piece doesn’t slip into pseudo-jazz silliness. The panning drone works well every time it returns because of the irregular stereo movement, it doesn’t simply undulate predictably from one side to the other. On the subject of undulation, Fancher’s vibrato is very musical, varying its depth and pace to fit the music really successfully. The ending is a pleasingly wimpy affair, petering out rather pathetically but actually rounding off this delightfully strange piece rather well.