Romantic Violin

Joined by the Zürich Tonhalle Orchestra and David Zinman, Fischer pairs the ever-popular Bruch concerto with Dvorák's undeservedly neglected but perennially fresh masterpiece - a rather more logical twinning than the ubiquitous Mendelssohn.

Won’t nearly an hour and three quarters of music for violin and piano by the same composer be too monotonous? No it won’t because it is Dvořák… Dvořák never repeated himself; in every work, he created a different musical world. It would be hard to find another composer capable of such diversity within a single musical genre. After the earliest of the pieces, the Romance, he sent his publisher Simrock the Mazurek, which he dedicated to the Spanish virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate. The almost meditative Nocturne first appeared in a string quartet and then a quintet before being heard for the first time as an independent piece in arrangements including one for violin and piano.

Brahms: Cycle Bernstein: Violin COncerto-Double Concerto - BoxSet 5DVD - DVD 4/5[DVD9]
Classical | DVD | with complete scans (covers and booklet) | 6,87 Gb (DVD9) | DVD´s FULL No compression
Audio: PCM Stereo - DTS 5.1 | Relesase: October 9, 2007 | Publisher: Deutsche Grammophon

Gidon Kremer in the Violin Concerto and Double Concerto (with Mischa Maisky) subsumes his usual analytical style and partakes of Bernstein's Romantic persona, producing splendidly expressive performances with long legato lines emphasizing the vocal, song-like Brahms. The video is digitally clear and free from artifacts, well filmed by Humphrey Burton. Sound in both PCM stereo and DTS 5.1 is clear, just slightly thinner than today's sound.
Bernstein's romantic vision and Kremer/Maisky's softer, more lyrical performance style are strongly recommended.

Bruch’s tribute to Scotland was written before he had set foot in the country. Even so, the Scottish Fantasy suggests someone steeped in the folk songs of the Highlands, with traditional Scottish melodies threaded throughout. Joshua Bell, soloist and conductor, leads his orchestra through the fens with playing of exquisite dramatic sensitivity and a golden tone, resulting in a rich, characterful portrait of the wild landscape. They also put their attention to the Violin Concerto No. 1, a work they first recorded together in 2000. There’s a good deal more sureness to the playing from both parties this time, underlining these musicians’ burgeoning artistic relationship.

These two splendid violin concertos breathe the air of Late Romanticism. Well orchestrated and skilfully written for the soloist, they have retained their footholds in the repertoire, even though their respective composers have gone out of fashion. Camille Saint-Saëns’ Third Violin Concerto in B minor had the absolute certainty and conviction of a masterpiece. Saint-Saëns wrote it early in 1880 for the popular Spanish virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate.

Sarah Chang - Mendelssohn & Sibelius - Violin Concertos (2017) {Warner Classics 0724355641823 rec 1996)
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 261 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 138 Mb
Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 69 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1996, 2017 Parlophone / Warner Classics | 0724355641823
Classical / Romantic / Concero / Violin

It is coming up to five years since Sarah Chang, then in her early teens, made her brilliant and moving concerto recording debut in the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto on EMI (12/93). Her concerto recordings for the label since then have been of brilliant showpiece works like the Lalo Symphonie espagnole (5/96) and the Paganini First Concerto (1/95) rather than of the central repertory. It is good here to have her remarkable artistry revealed again at full stretch in astonishingly mature interpretations of the Mendelssohn and Sibelius concertos.

Sergey Taneyev's music was acclaimed by some as a 'model of pure style and sublime art', but he was a loner whose supreme mastery of European Classical technique placed him outside the more nationalist trends of the day. The Violin Sonata in A minor is neo-Classical in its reserved and often song-like moods and expressions. It contrasts with the grand scale of the Piano Quintet in G minor in which the virtuoso nature of the piano writing reflects Taneyev's own prowess, and the brilliant integration of the works' themes cumulate into an overwhelming conclusion.

Sibelius studied the violin in his youth, and actively entertained the prospect of a career as a professional violinist for much of his student life. After graduating from the Helsinki Music Institute, in 1890, he went to Vienna to continue his studies, and while there he even auditioned (unsuccessfully) for a place in the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. So, it comes as no surprise that the instrument plays an important place in his compositional output. What might be surprising is that he wrote only one concerto – this might perhaps be due to the difficult conception of the work.

Franz Liszt composed little chamber music, though the handful of pieces he wrote or arranged for violin and piano represent his enduring interest in that combination, from the Grand Duo concertant (1835/49) to La lugubre gondola (1882-83). This program by violinist Ulf Wallin and pianist Roland Pöntinen offers those pieces and five more selections that demonstrate Liszt's fondness for passionate, long-breathed melodies in the Magyar vein and turbulent accompaniments that allowed for virtuosity. The standout track of this hybrid SACD is the arrangement of the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12 (ca. 1850), which gives a full treatment to those characteristics, and provides Wallin and Pöntinen their most dazzling displays. While the moods of the surrounding pieces are for the most part lyrical and subdued, the performances are compelling and the sound of the recording is close-up and focused, with the presence and clarity of a recital.

The visiting Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra opened its concert at the 1967 Vienna Festival with a high-octane performance of Dvorák’s patriotic overture The Hussites. In the Brahms Violin Concerto, the elegant soloist Henry Szeryng and the conductor Rafael Kubelík entered into a musical dialogue that was both subtly sensitive and quick-witted. This release has been digitally mastered from the original tapes for optimal sound quality, and is sure to delight a whole new generation of listeners.