/ discography at a glance

DISC OF THE MONTH: With Hope's unusual intensity of expression and technical brilliance, this CD could certainly reach a wide audience... one has to compare Shostakovich's Sonata to the 1968 Oistrach/Richter recording; although this new version has nothing to be worried about. Hope's interpretation is in a way more extreme, and more contrasting... Daniel Hope is a violin star of the future.

It's remarkable how completely the twenty-something British violin virtuoso Daniel Hope enters into the often tortured world of eastern European composers. The centerpiece of this stimulating recital is Shostakovich's Op. 134 sonata... Hope and his young keyboard partner, Simon Mulligan, have made a recording that yields little, if anything, to the classic version by David Oistrakh and Sviatislov Richter... the younger violinist compensates with playing that's sharply focused and committed.

The first movement bristles with tension, its strangeness fully evident. In the second, Hope powerfully projects the movement's demonic wildness as his slashing attacks and Mulligan's relentlessly driving keyboard rhythms leave you breathless. In the long, complex final movement the pair sustains the intense mood as well as its renowned Russian rivals... The booklet has excellent notes by Hope that mix personal anecdote with analysis of the music. Its back cover advertises his first Nimbus disc--Schnittke, Weill, and Takemitsu. I never heard it. Don't you make the same mistake with this one.

This is the first I've heard of the British violinist Daniel Hope, and I must say I'm impressed... he plays with exemplary commitment and understanding. The program opens with the Shostakovich Sonata. I never thought I'd write these words, but Hope and Mulligan play with far greater understanding than David Oistrakh, its dedicatee, and Sviatoslav Richter do.

The duo plays at a consistently lower dynamic level... sustaining the eerie mood in a way that Oistrakh and Richter could not do. The Finale is very sensitively played and holds together beautifully... Hope and Mulligan are very fine musicians.

DISC OF THE MONTH: With generous tone and phrasing, superbly expressive... the violin timbre is noticeably less harsh than that of Oistrakh... this masterful interpretation asserts itself, in my opinion, as THE version of the work, even more than the one by its dedicatees (Oistrakh and Richter). It should also ensure its accessibility to a wider audience... Hope's playing has unlimited poise and a superhuman commitment. Schnittke's Stille Nacht, excellent in every way, is the most moving version I have ever heard. A phenomenal disc marking the belated accession of a truly major violinist.

CRITICS' CHOICE: It's refreshing when a young classical musician follows a resolutely modern muse, as 25-year-old English violinist Daniel Hope did on his enterprising Nimbus debut of Schnittke, Takemitsu, and Weill - and as he does with this equally impressive sophomore set, pairing Shostakovich and Schnittke with Krzysztof Penderecki and Arvo Pärt.

Hope - who knew Schnittke and whose take on Penderecki's Cadenza comes composer-approved - has real insight into the subtext as well as the text of these intense works... Hope has also written his own liner notes, further marking this as a special recital.

A magnificent contemporary programme which allows Daniel Hope to highlight the range of charm reserved for this repertoire... The British Duo follow this autobiographical journey with versatility and finesse... The interpreters who have done justice to this last movement of Shostakovich are rare, apart from Oistrakh/Richter or Kremer/Gavrilov.

Hope, however, remains an excellent guide for savouring the specifics of the writing, as well as creating his own distinctive sound in the other pieces on the disc... The beauty of tone and the clarity of stroke which Hope achieves, add much to the pleasure which this programme gives.

The main work on young British violinist Daniel Hope's current CD is Shostakovich's beautiful late Violin Sonata... which Hope brings off not only with technical brilliance but highly sensitively too. Magnificently he follows the shadowy trail of a burning heart, which only survives thanks to the explosiveness of the music. The other works on the disc are also 20th century - commercially rather risky. The way he plays them however, negates this risk.

What's unusual about this disc, however, is not just the tremendous security, agility and range of colour of Daniel Hope's playing, but his unusually strong affinity with the repertoire. Few string-players born outside Eastern Europe sound entirely at home in the sombre broodings and manic outbursts of late Shostakovich, Schnittke and Penderecki; but the Englishman evidently relishes them. He gets as close to the heart of the Shostakovich as any recording I know... Hope again manages to leave his performerly ego out of it and follows the music into its own transfigured realm...another tribute to Hope and Mulligan... certainly they yield nothing to the dedicatees.

Hope’s superb playing... he is so persuasive that one has to follow him through the music. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more compelling account of the Shostakovich Sonata – not even from the work’s dedicatee, David Oistrakh. There’s grandeur here, intensity and bleak pathos, but most impressive of all is his grasp of the work as a whole... first-class recordings.

Five Stars for Performance - Five Stars for Sound.

It's good to find Daniel Hope continuing the all-20th-century commitment of his impressive debut disc... this new programme makes for absorbing listening... and an ideal balance between Hope and his excellent partner, Simon Mulligan. The Shostakovich sonata's steady dramatic evolution is superbly sustained in this performance... the build-up to the central pair of cadenzas is electrifying. There's a blistering final track with Schnittke's familiar 'Stille Nacht' in which Hope and Mulligan make great play with the composer's own perception of it... no other disc offers this thought-provoking collection of compositions, or such superior recorded sound.

It is highly recommended.

DISC OF THE MONTH: After his extraordinarily enterprising debut disc of twentieth-century violin concertos, Daniel Hope has produced an equally compelling solo release... particularly so given the control, poise and rapt atmosphere of the playing. In the Shostakovich, both Hope and Mulligan probe beneath the bleakness of the writing, drawing an ever wider range of colours and associations from the music than the legendary Oistrakh/Richter recording. The experience is mesmerising... interpretation of the greatest sensitivity. An intelligent and musically compelling programme that deserves the widest possible dissemination.

Alternatives: None of this programme.

Five Stars for Performance - Five Stars for Sound.

Magnificently played by Hope who negotiates all the notes with a corporate attack that enhances the music's power of suggestion... he is unchallenged in his spiritual intensity. Throughout the disc, Daniel Hope and Simon Mulligan play with a demonic intensity and astounding technical ability that continue to confirm their status as one of the best chamber partnerships around in the sonata repertoire... As a monument to the artistic icons of twentieth century sonatas this disc is essential, indeed indispensable.

Five Stars Performance, Five Stars Sound.

DISC OF THE WEEK: Daniel Hope, a violinist very much from the Menuhin stable, yet something of a maverick, returns to his beloved Schnittke, placing him in the company of the composer's self-avowed ‘musical relatives’: Shostakovich, Arvo Pärt and Penderecki.

Hope's deeply thoughtful performances and Nimbus's meticulous engineering combine to make this a very special disc. With his pianist Simon Mulligan, Hope brings a sombre intensity to the Sonata Op 134 which Shostakovich wrote in 1968... the violin becomes a laser beam, reaching the very extremes of technique and expression.