In the notes to her new Prokofiev album, Lisa Oshima takes ‘challenge’ as the keyword for the recording. Prokofiev set himself the stiff challenge of writing a Sonata for two violins (Op 56), and in the spirit of such experimentation, Oshima takes up some challenges of her own. The Violin Sonata No 2 (Op 94a) is Prokofiev’s arrangement of his Flute Sonata, and Oshima undertakes to play it as if she were a flautist. In performing the Sonata for solo violin (Op 115), she says that she seeks to see it through the eyes of a young violin student. The final experiment is Thomas Zehetmair’s re-composition of the Solo Sonata with a second violin added, and he joins Oshima to play this version in its premiere recording.

The disc is a challenge for the reviewer, too, because Oshima reinvents herself as a performer in each piece. Oshima and Zehetmair approach Prokofiev’s Two-Violin Sonata as if they were improvising the music, to the extent that there is often no clear pulse, let alone a discernible metre. No one would guess from this performance that the first movement, for example, is written in a straightforward 4/4, and largely in plain crotchets and quavers. It is all the more impressive that they manage to play with such convincing ensemble. Playing with heightened expression, and with seductive tone quality, they produce a wide range of wonderful sounds, and perhaps this rendering of the first movement, by itself, would make a great encore piece. The only problem for me was that Prokofiev did not offer his performers any such licence, and as a composer/pianist he was famed for his rhythmic drive, not for wayward rubato. He wrote the Sonata in 1932, when he was looking for a ‘new simplicity’ to rival Stravinsky’s neoclassicism. In the Oshima-Zehetmair rethinking of the piece, there is no simplicity, and, indeed, the music becomes highly elusive, especially for listeners who do not already know it well.

These contrarian tendencies are still more at odds with the toccata-like Allegro, where tricky interactions between the two alternating violins are marked con precisione. In this performance (after 1'40"), these interactions sound chaotic and almost hysterical. The performers’ approach conflicts less with the third movement, where the exquisite colouring creates a certain charm and poignancy, but even here, the determined avoidance of any natural sense of flow feels more like a loss than a gain. The same has to be said about the finale, characterful and playful as it is. Perhaps the best listener is one who was previously unaware of the work, and who can take the performers’ ideas on their own merits.

Oshima changes character for the Violin Sonata No 2, and her attempts to play like a flautist even make her sound reserved as a violinist, shedding the previous seductiveness of tone, the vibrato and the violinistic micro-intonation. In their place is a more flighty and bouncing sound that is very enjoyable overall. While the two violins of the Sonata benefited from the recording set-up, the violin-piano duet is not served as well, and the piano sound is somewhat lacking in richness.

Oshima tells us she will play the Solo Sonata (in its original form) with ‘innocence’, and her approach here is entirely convincing. All three movements are truly delightful, with plenty of imagination, colour and contrasts of timbre and character. I must even confess that she makes the piece sound better than I remember it – Prokofiev originally intended it as a piece for students, and it could often be heard in conservatoires played by many young violinists in unison.

Zehetmair then returns to join Oshima in the new version. The rhythmic liberties return, but it would seem silly to object in this instance, since this is no longer a pure Prokofiev score, and the players can surely do as they please. The second part is well conceived, and the musicians clearly enjoy themselves in a dazzling display of duet-playing. The playing throughout the album is of a very high level, and the ‘challenges’ are meet with results that range from interesting to highly successful.