Https: Hdmusic.club Jascha Heifetz Miklos Rozsa Violin Concerto Arthur Benjamin Romantic Fantasy 1964 2016 Dsf Dsd64

Another fine Pfeiffer / Chase / Heiftez collaboration. Throw in Hendl conducting the Detroit Symphony on the Rozsa Violin Concerto and Izler conducting the RCAVVO on Benjamin's Romantic Fantasy and you've got a winner. This is an original 3-track recording and that is what this LP reissue was mastered from. The result? Not to be missed!
"…I'd have to say that the usual stumbling blocks have been sidestepped. Great care has been taken to do the right things, starting with the way the decision to remaster these RCAs was made." (Jonathan Valin, The Absolute Sound)

Like other European composers of his generation, Miklós Rósza, born in Hungary in 1907, found political and creative sanctuary in Hollywood, where he wrote concert music and many notable film scores. These three works clearly show that he never lost his roots in his native folk music. The violin concerto, a lush, romantic piece, was written at the urging of Jascha Heifetz and is tailored to his and his instrument's strengths, with singing, soaring melodies, brilliant passage work, and a very effective cadenza. Later, Heifetz and cellist Gregor Piatigorsky asked Rósza to write a piece for them; the "Theme and Variations" is the slow movement of a longer work. It is beautifully written for both instruments; based on a Hungarian melody, the variations are wonderfully inventive and varied in mood, character, and expression. The Cello Concerto too is extremely difficult and virtuosic, often quite wild and aggressive, and full of contrasts. The orchestration is excellent throughout, but not too heavy.

Miklos Rózsa arrived in Hollywood in 1940 after study in Leipzig and a stint in Paris where Arthur Honegger encouraged him to compose music for films. In California he found a strong community of expatriate composers including Stravinsky, Schoenberg and Korngold, and some of the finest instrumental soloists then active, including Heifetz, Rubinstein and Piatigorsky.

Both works on this the third volume in Koch’s superb series of Rozsa’s orchestral music were inspired by suggestions from the cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, the Op. 29 (1966) being a direct commission for a double concerto for himself and Jascha Heifetz. Despite having to juggle with the temperamental demands of his two eminent soloists, both of whom would object if the spotlight seemed to be favouring one instrument more than the other (which probably explains why Rozsa reduced the piece by over ten minutes following its poorly received premiere in Chicago under Jean Martinon), the resulting showcase, with its passionate opening movement and highly rhythmic finale, is further evidence of the composer’s abiding affection for his native Hungary.

This performance of the fiery Fantasy in G minor for violin and orchestra, Op. 24, of Josef Suk, with violinist Christan Tetzlaff catching the full impact of the irregular form with its dramatic opening giving out into a set of variations, is impressive. And Tetzlaff delivers pure warm melody in the popular Romance in F minor, Op. 11, of Dvorák. But the real reason to acquire this beautifully recorded Ondine release is the performance of the Dvorák Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 53, a work of which there are plenty of recordings, but that has always played second fiddle (if you will) to the Brahms concerto. Tetzlaff and the Helsinki Philharmonic under John Storgårds create a distinctive and absorbing version that can stand with the great Czech recordings of the work. Sample anywhere, but especially the slow movement, where Tetzlaff's precise yet rich sound, reminiscent for those of a certain age of Henryk Szeryng, forms a striking contrast with Storgårds' glassy Nordic strings. In both outer movements as well, Tetzlaff delivers a warm yet controlled performance that is made to stand out sharply.

Composed in 1993, the John Adams Violin Concerto is already a contemporary classic. Some reviewers say it is the best violin concerto written in the past 50 years. This new recording by Leila Josefowicz is the last word on what are now many recordings by some of the world's finest players. She first recorded the Violin Concerto in 2002 with John Adams, the composer, conducting. What makes this new recording the best? Josefowicz "owns" the piece having performed it in concert over 100 times since the premiere!