Beethoven - Violin Sonata 9 [McAslan/ Blakely]
The Scottish born Lorraine McAslan is certainly not a household name, she hasn't made a lot of recordings, and seems to have been stuck on less well known Record labels.
But her interpretation of this classic is very good indeed, she's fairly matter of fact, she looks glum in the photo on the cover of the booklet, and maybe her readings also have a slightly sombre feel to them as well.
On this listen i enjoyed the middle variation movement, this has always been my favourite, the variations are full of ...well variety!, lots of exciting different ways of listening to the same tune, the theme [0:00-2:40] has some majestic playing by John Blakley, taken at a stately tread, also in the first variation [2:41-4:47], the piano is nicely recorded into the mix, it's not considered an inferior instrument here, in the second variation [4:48-6:29], there's some exciting and busy violin work by McAslan, and variation four [9:18-12:04] some nice high register work, and pizzicato playing by McAslan, right near the end, the coda is a loving summation of the movement [13:18 onwards], bringing to a close one of the greatest of Beethoven's Chamber music creations.
Here's Joshua Bell / Yuja Wang playing this movement on YouTube.
