** 1/2 SENOFSKY: “The Art of the Violin, Volume One: Concert Favorites” Berl Senofsky, violin; Boris Barere, Julian Martin, Won Me Cho, piano; Cembal d’amour
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Moved by seeing “The Winners,” a saddening 1999 documentary about the post-competition lives of four top winners at the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition in Brussels, producer Mordecai Shehori sought out one of them--Berl Senofsky--to offer him a CD on his Cembal d’amour label.
Whether this will reignite Senofsky’s concert career--if that’s the intention--is doubtful. Born in 1926 and now a teacher at the Peabody Conservatory, Senofsky is too much a patrician, an exemplar of warmth, elegance, lightness, sweetness and undemonstrative virtuosity. In short, an anachronism in today’s market.
In recordings made at a live performance at Carnegie Hall in 1992, he plays works by more than a dozen composers, from Vivaldi to Shostakovich, with rich, lyrical and tasteful but also reticent sound. Still, Vivaldi’s Sonata in D is lovely, Schubert’s Sonata in D touches real depths, and other works will charm the discriminating listener.
