Paganini: 24 Caprices
Sergey Malov (violin) (Solo Musica)
(scroll down for English review)
馬洛夫在巴哈大提琴組曲的錄音後，重拾小提琴錄帕格里尼的隨想曲。在芸芸錄音中，我覺得馬洛夫依然出眾，已不只是一句技術了得，而是極力讓這套作品，衝破重重的技術荊棘，回歸為簡樸而悅耳的音樂。我不會保證這是最佳錄音，但聽過後，令我覺得很多著名錄音的刺耳地方，並非作品問題，而是演奏未到盡善盡美。
一些旁枝末節，可能要花費一點字數去談。馬洛夫在第九及18首，用了一些混音效果製造迴音聲效。13首打後，有很多首都是採用ABA曲式，但馬洛夫不想就這樣把A部分重覆一次，他要不在BA之間加一點花款，就如拉巴洛克曲目那般，要不就把重覆削短，不要那麼長氣。但去到第20首就更意料不到，雖然很多小提琴家都拉得出這曲像鄉村音樂的特質，但馬洛夫在重覆時，把旋律變成一首假如你有相當年紀，一定會認得的英國旋律，但不是國歌。
馬洛夫在第24首前，用電小提琴把之前的隨想曲做了一個拼貼，不算特別。但在24首之後的軌26，我起初還以為有甚麼特別，不過是把第五首再拉一次，但去到最後，真的始料不及，捧腹大笑。
After tackling Bach on the violoncello da spalla Malov returned to the violin with a new recording of the Paganini caprices. I think Malov still stood out from this oft-recorded repertoire, although I won’t say it’s the best but it’s rare hearing Paganini played with such tonal beauty, as if the technical hurdles weren’t there.
Some details are worth mentioning. In the 9th and 18th caprices some audio delays were applied to produce an echo effect. From the 13th caprice onwards, many caprices are in an ABA structure. Malov tried not to repeat verbatim: sometimes he embellished the repeat just like a baroque musician does, and sometimes he shortened the repeat and that actually tightened up the piece. Many violinists approached the 20th caprice with the fiddle in mind but Malov went one step further and morphed the repeat into a well-known English tune.
Before the 24th caprice Malov did a collage out of elements from the preceding caprices, but with an electric violin. Track 26 started out as an encore of the 5th caprice but I laughed out loud at the end, I won’t say more so go check this out.