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Frank Proto
Five Divertimenti for Solo Violin
Eric Bates, Violin
Red Mark Records CD 9221
Proto has collaborated with jazz musicians such as Dave Brubeck, Gerry Mulligan and Cleo Laine but his Five Divertimenti for Solo Violin are neo-Classical, with Classical forms and Baroque imitative techniques finding fresh impetus through Proto's interest in Bartok, Stravinsky and Henze.
Proto's strength is the clarity with which he manipulates his ideas on paper. The last movement of the divertimento No. 1 is a devilishly clever realization of how different strands of material can be contained at the same time, and the Divertimento No. 4 slyly builds the B-A-C-H motif into a vast network of underpinning structural impulses and scurrying embellishment.
Eric Bates is a lively soloist, who obviously greatly appreciates the inner subtleties of such violinstic writing. Indeed this music is a violinist's jackpot, even if the rest of us might shy away from listening to all 77 minutes in one sitting.