CONCERTO REVIEWS

posted by James Reel

Here are a couple of reviews I wrote a few months ago for Fanfare, covering very recommendable recordings of concertos by Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky and Glazunov ...

GLAZUNOV Violin Concerto TCHAIKOVSKY Souvenir d’un lieu cher; Violin Concerto * Vadim Gluzman (vn); Andrew Litton, cond; Bergen PO * BIS SACD 1432 (hybrid multichannel SACD: 70:58)

There have been many, many fine recorded performances of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, more than a couple of Glazunov’s, and no doubt many more will arrive in the next few years. Do we need Vadim Gluzman’s new traversal of these scores? Yes, indeed. While it’s impossible to classify this or any other version of the Tchaikovsky as the absolute best, Gluzman’s certainly stands among the finest.

First, there’s Gluzman’s tremendous virtuosity—not the showy sort, but the kind that makes the pyrotechnics sound absolutely natural and musical. Just consider those double stops in the last movement of the Tchaikovsky, or nearly any bar in the tricky Glazunov, all featuring faultless intonation. The playing is both impeccable and elastic; you never have the sense that Gluzman is tightening up at the hard parts.

Then, there’s Gluzman’s lyric ardor. These aren’t the hottest performances available, but they do sing warmly, without making the music turn to goo. One can find greater nobility or poise in some other performances of the Tchaikovsky slow movement, and more throaty darkness in the low notes of some other Russian soloists. But that’s why we collect multiple renditions.

There are some interesting connections here. Gluzman separates the two concertos with Glazunov’s orchestration of Tchaikovsky’s three-movement Souvenir d’un lieu cher; he also performs on a 1690 Strad that once belonged to Leopold Auer, the (reluctant) dedicatee of the Tchaikovsky concerto and the man who premiered the Glazunov. Surely none of this affects Gluzman’s performance, but it does bring a special sense of heritage to the project.

Andrew Litton leads the Bergen Philharmonic in perky, alert accompaniments, soaking in a warm ambient bath. The orchestra lacks the presence it enjoys in its Grieg series for BIS—the most beautiful orchestral sonics I’ve ever heard—but it puts across what’s necessary here.

There are already other choices for this music on SACD, notably the slightly sweeter-toned Julia Fischer on PentaTone (with the Tchaikovsky works on one disc, the Glazunov on another). If you already have Fischer’s recordings, it’s less imperative to obtain Gluzman’s, but either artist’s discs would be a superb addition to either a basic or a comprehensive collection. James Reel

MENDELSSOHN Violin Concertos: in e (original version); in d. Concerto in d for Violin, Piano, and Strings. Capriccio Brillant. Rondo Brillant. Serenade and Allegro Giocoso. Piano Concertos: in a; No. 1 in g; No. 2 in d. Concertos for Two Pianos: in E; in A-flat * Isabelle van Keulin (vn); Ronald Brautigam, Roland Pöntinen, Love Derwinger (pn); Lev Markiz (cond); Amsterdam Sinfonietta * BIS SACD 1766 (two-channel SACD: 255:55)

Here’s the third incarnation of a series recorded in the mid 1990s. First, it came out on four separate CDs, then in a four-for-the-price-of-three box, and now on a single SACD. This is not a surround-sound version, but BIS takes advantage of the SACD’s great storage capacity to place four and a quarter hours of music onto a single platter. Note that although it’s a conventional two-channel production, this disc is compatible only with SACD players.

If you invest in this very satisfactory set, you’ll still need someone else’s recording(s) of the standard version of Mendelssohn’s popular E-minor Violin Concerto. What we have here is the original, pre-Ferdinand David version. Aside from a bit of inferior passagework, this is not a weak work that was vastly improved by David’s expert advice; this initial version is merely different, not worse. It’s less of a violin showpiece; David advocated moving passages up an octave, adding lots of extra double stops, expanding the first-movement cadenza, and so on, to produce a more brilliant effect. In the original version, Mendelssohn tends to employ sighing or dying phrases where later he would heighten the drama with rising sequences. The version we know is largely heroic assertion, whereas the early version is more of a Romantic struggle whose outcome is never assured, even if the stakes don’t seem as high as in, for example, the Sibelius concerto.

Three of the other concertante works are products of Mendelssohn’s teen years: the D-minor Violin Concerto, the A-minor Piano Concerto, the Violin-Piano Concerto, and the Two-Piano Concertos date from 1822-24, and inhabit the sound world of Mendelssohn’s early string symphonies (except for the two-piano works, the soloists are accompanied by string orchestra), although the Violin-Piano Concerto often comes off more as a chamber duo with string-orchestra commentary. The remaining works for single piano and orchestra are more mature products of the 1830s.

The soloists tend to play with the requisite nimbleness and spirit, although the two-piano works would benefit from greater verve, not just the precision offered here. Pianist Ronald Brautigam’s contributions are especially sparkling and impetuous, and Lev Markiz leads the Amsterdam Sinfonietta in fully complementary accompaniments (although the Piano Concerto No. 1 could use a slightly larger orchestra to convey the music’s storm and stress more fully).

These performances don’t necessarily outclass certain old favorites—Rudolf Serkin and Murray Perahia in the numbered single-piano concertos, Argerich and Kremer in the piano-violin work—but they serve the scores well, and present attractive music in a space- and money-saving little package. James Reel