Album Review: Vladimir & Anton, Live

Resident in Ireland for some time, Slovakian brothers Vladimir and Anton Jablokov are violin virtuosos who’ve been making a name for themselves on the national classical scene.

Recorded live over three nights of sold-out performances at the Wexford Arts Centre earlier this year, this collection focuses mainly on popular Russian classical music. There are pieces by composers such as Prokofiev, Rimsky-Korsakov and Shostakovich, as well as old Russian folk and romance tunes.

Intricately played folk-dance pieces like ‘Meadowlands’ are complemented by the romantic ‘I Met You’, as well as the more familiar Katushya medley. The latter interpolates section of ‘Flight Of The Bumble Bee’, the joyfully uplifting ‘Kalinka’ and the cinematic ‘Theme from Sunflower’. Of interest to pop music scholars will be Vladimir & Anton’s popular version of ‘Those Were The Days’, better known as the Paul McCartney-produced Mary Hopkin hit from 1968, but originally a Russian tune from the 1920s. It was also used in the 1953 movie An Innocent In Paris.

Even for those not fully versed in the nuances of the Russian classical and folk music canon, it’s instantly clear this is exhilarating stuff, played with passion and skill and recorded beautifully.