Ernst Krenek Violin Concertos 1 And 2

Bartok - Violin Concertos 1 & 2, Viola Concerto, etc. - Yehudi Menuhin (2003) {2CD Set EMI Classics rec 1965-1975}
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© 1965-75, 2003 EMI Classics | 7243 5 85487 2 3
Classical / Early 20th Century / Concerto

Compiled from recordings dating from 1965 to 1974, this EMI/Gemini double-disc of Bartók's string concertos and other works features Yehudi Menuhin at the peak of his powers, with support from two important Bartók specialists and their sympathetic orchestras. Menuhin is admirably backed in all the concertos by Antal Dorati and the New Philharmonia Orchestra, and Pierre Boulez and the BBC Symphony Orchestra provide meticulous accompaniment in the two Rhapsodies. The resilient Viola Concerto and the splendid Violin Concerto No. 2 are essential listening, both for their masterful writing and for the vigorous performances Menuhin and Dorati deliver.

After having recorded Mozart’s last three violin concertos in 2014, Arabella Steinbacher, the Festival Strings Lucerne and its leader Daniel Dodds now complete the cycle by presenting Mozart’s less well-known, but equally enchanting Violin Concertos 1 & 2, together with his Adagio in E Major and Rondos in C Major and B-flat Major…

Ernest Ansermet was in the peak of his directorial power in this decade. The real effort to guide and elevate the Suisse Romande to the most famous swiss orchestra ever was made for this admirable and not yet recognized conductor. Ansermet had a special rapport for the Russian composers. In this recording we have the presence of the virtuosi violinist Ruggiero Ricci characterized with a cold temperament but gifted with a steel sound extremely adequate for this works, giving his best musical achievement of his brilliant career with both Prokoviev violin concertos.

Hungarian Kristóf Baráti is recognised as one of the most outstanding violinists of his generation. His dazzling technique (often compared with the young Heifetz), his sincere, intensely musical interpretations and strong personality have brought him to today's top. This release presents two virtuoso showcases, the violin concertos nos. 1 & 2 by Paganini, the wizard of the violin, suspected of having sold his soul to the devil in order to receive a transcendent technique.

If the idea of a marginally more advanced Mendelssohn or a slightly more coherent Liszt sounds appealing, try Joseph Joachim Raff. In this disc of his two violin concertos coupled with two shorter works for violin and orchestra, Raff writes for the soloist in an effervescent style that clearly has its origins in Mendelssohn's elfin manner.

Ms. Mutter makes the violin sing in this fine collection of violin concertos recorded with the Berlin Philharmonic. Ms. Mutter was discovered by Herbert von Karajan at age 13, declared by him as "the greatest musical prodigy since the young Menuhin" and played with the Berlin Philharmonic as a teenager. The two Mozart concertos were recorded when she was only 15. The other concertos were recorded before she was twenty years old. My favorite is the Mendelssohn concerto. Ms. Mutter plays its haunting theme with elegance,flair and fire. Her passion and precision are evident through the difficult passages. Married to conductor Andre Previn, who wrote a violin concerto for her, Ms. Mutter never fails to intrigue her audience, making her vioin sing with colorful, soulful voices.

Violinist Arabella Steinbacher studied her first Mozart Violin Concerto in G major at the age of eight. The legendary pianist Arthur Schnabel mentioned that the piano sonatas of Mozart are too easy for children yet too difficult for adults. In Steinbacher’s words: In Mozart one must always make sure that it’s powerful, but at the same time never sounds aggressive and that the sound always remains beautifully pure and almost angelic. And since then the piece has become the underlying theme throughout her career. She played the piece during many important moments of her life. It was also the piece that got Arabella accepted as the youngest students of Ana Chumachenko when she was nine. Yet it never came to a CD recording while listeners regularly ask for it.

Frank Peter Zimmermann, one of today’s most highly regarded violinists, here performs works by two Central European composers that also exemplify various currents in classical music during the period 1920-1950. Although it only received its first performance in 1973, Bohuslav Martinů’s Violin Concerto No. 1 had been composed 40 years earlier in the neo-classical idiom championed by Stravinsky. In contrast, the composer’s Second Violin Concerto (1943) is written in a more lyrical vein, partly to suit the playing style of Mischa Elman, the violinist who commissioned it. In both works Zimmermann is partnered by Bamberger Symphoniker under the orchestra’s chief conductor Jakub Hrůša, one of the leading Martinů conductors of today.

Filmed in Vienna's Grosser Musikvereinssaal in the early 1980s, this fabled rendering of Mozart's complete violin concertos appears on DVD for the first time. Premier violinist Gidon Kremer unites with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Wiener Philharmoniker in a tribute to the musical genius Harnoncourt deems "the most Romantic composer of all".