Kavakos Plays Stravinsky and Bach

I found a wonderful CD of Stravinsky and Bach performed by Leonidas Kavakos
accompanied by pianist Peter Nagy. The two composers complement each other nicely - rhythmically and harmonically lean, sometimes austere, these pieces engage the listener through their iso-rhythmic and contrapuntal energy more than their emotional exuberance.
Kavakos himself is breath of fresh air. The playing is precise yet expressive. Unlike the robotic performances in vogue on large stages today, he understands this music, has definite ideas about how it should be played, and he communicates those ideas.
The two Stravinsky works, Duo Concertante and the Suite Italienne, were unfamiliar to me except through the Pulcinella Suite on which the Italienne is based. While elegantly performed, the Suite Italienne does little for me simply because I've never understood or cared for Pulcinella.
The Duo on the other hand is a delightful work. Neo-classical like the Suite but a richer meal. It affords a nice showcase for Kovakos' broad timbrel and and stylistic range. He especially shines in the Eglogue II movement, a sweet nostalgic interlude among the perpetuum mobile of the surrounding movements. Here is a performer unafraid, for example, to use his vibrato in a variety of ways (or not at all) as a response to musical demands rather than an absent-minded and mechanical gloss.
The first Partita and first Sonata for Solo violin are delights for listeners for the same reason they are challenges for interpretors. Minimalist works that make each note play double-duty, they require the interpretor to make innumerable decisions. Is a note the ending of the prior phrase or the beginning of the next? Is a note part of the melody or the harmony? or is it an inner voice? Should the dance-like character be emphasized such that the small gestures and steps are articulated or should smaller phrases be subservient to the larger harmonic periods of the movements? Ultimately Kavakos appears to do both and with a flawless execution of intonation and articulation. In the slower movements, a fine-grained lilt is obtained such as in the Sarabande of the Partita while the faster movements, the Presto Double or the Presto of the Sonata for example, a driving, swinging propulsion carries you from double bar to double bar.
Overall this is superlative CD. Kavakos and Nagy are world-class musicians performing a program well-suited to their artistic temperaments and thoughtfully put together such that the whole illuminates the individual parts. Hopefully we'll should be hearing more from them.