Perhaps the most promising thing about this impressive debut album from Jacques Forestier, the young Canadian violinist who tied in first place at the 2024 Joseph Joachim Competition, is the way it lives up to its title.
There’s a swing to the way he and the pianist Boris Kusnezow play Bartók’s six Romanian Folk Dances that extends even into the quiet movements, which sound distant and beguiling. Wieniawski’s Polonaise de Concert comes across as a dance rather than just a flashy showpiece. Bach’s D minor Sarabande is framed by movements from Ysaÿe’s solo Sonatas. All have persuasive rhythmic poise.
As for the songs, he shapes long-breathed lines in three numbers from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess – arranged by Jascha Heifetz, seemingly less as showpieces, more because Heifetz wished he were able to sing them himself. Brahms reused his own song melodies in his Sonata No 1; there’s the occasional corner that is arbitrarily turned as played by Forestier, but otherwise it’s a quietly eloquent, lyrical performance. Perhaps the most impressive track is for Forestier alone: Heinrich Ernst’s Grand Caprice, basically an arrangement of Schubert’s song Erlkönig. Forestier, keeping the interweaving threads untangled and the pace urgent, voices its drama beautifully.
Listen on Apple Music (above) or Spotify
