Korngold Violin

Ilya Gringolts plays with a ferocity that – in tandem with taut rhythmic control – adroitly avoids even the slightest hint of frenzy. And yet, for all its intensity and firmness of grip, there’s an equally riveting sense of spontaneity to his playing, too – particularly in Adams’s Concerto, with its intricately variegated, continuous solo part. Gringolts phrases assertively and with such expressive agility that at times in the first movement it sounds as if the violin and orchestra are working independently yet in sync, like separate gears in a great machine.

On this disc, the playing's the thing and it is fabulous. Originally made in 1979 and 1980, these recordings capture Perlman at his incomparable peak. The effortless perfection of his technique leaves you gasping in disbelief; even the infamously unplayable passages in the Sibelius Finale are tossed off with easy nonchalance, and he avoids the false accents often heard in the treacherous opening theme. And Perlman's toneis warm, mellow, pure, and constantly expressive; its golden glow is like burnished copper on the low strings, like radiant sunshine up high, and he can vary it instantaneously with bow and vibrato to fit the music.

When Vilde Frang programs violin concertos in unexpected pairs, such as her 2010 coupling of Jean Sibelius' Violin Concerto in D minor with Sergey Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, or her 2012 disc of Carl Nielsen's Violin Concerto matched against Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D major, the results are quite fascinating. For this 2016 release on Warner Classics, Frang plays the Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 of Erich Wolfgang Korngold and the Violin Concerto, Op. 15 of Benjamin Britten, and the works invite comparisons because they are so dramatically different.

This sparkling suite for violin and piano came into being when the composer had to adapt his incidental score for a production of Shakespeare's play to the impending absence of the chamber orchestral. The result is a brilliant piece for violin and piano, which the composer quickly released in a four-movement version. There are other recordings of the chamber orchestra suite in five-movements that duplicate only three of the movements of this version. Violinist Gil Shaham and pianist André Previn are ideal partners in this brilliant performance. The four movements allow Shaham to show four sides of his violinist's personality: He skips and plays in carefree fashion in the opening movement, indulges in the grotesquery and parody of the second, gets to play the romantic in the garden scene of the third movement, and dazzles with virtuosity in the final hornpipe. Previn's part is more than mere accompaniment; the piano often has a large part of the mood of the music and his contribution is, to use a word already employed here, ideal.

Pavel Šporcl's two most recent projects have manifested his remarkable stylistic flexibility. Vivaldi's Four Seasons and the crossover CD Gipsy Way with the Roma cimbalom band Romano Stilo earned the violin virtuoso richly deserved enthusiasticresponses on the part of critics and listeners alike. With this new CD, Šporcl returns to classical music. Well, sort of… When listening to Korngold's violin concerto it becomes obvious that the composer had devoted to film music over a long period, yet it may be the composition's directness and figurativeness that have made it so popular among the world's leading violinists. On the other hand, Richard Strauss's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major, Op. 8, does not appear inconcert programmes and recordings so often.

Anne-Sophie Mutter's virtuosity is so crystal clear that she doesn't even have to try any more. The ease with which she gets into her first solo in the Tchaikovsky is astounding–we hardly know what hit us–and she tackles the cadenza as if it were just another integral part of the work, rather than draw attention to the fact that it's a rather awkward cadenza at that. Her attacks are clean and strong and her tone is always deep and round; this is the epitome of the Romantic approach. The final movement draws attention to itself somewhat, but the listener remains dazzled.

The star of this consistently first-rate disc of music by Korngold is violinist Philippe Quint, whose focused tone, incisive intonation, athletic technique, and expressive phrasing ideally suit the composer's supremely Romantic Violin Concerto. This strong-willed account is deeply emotional and immensely appealing; Quint's opening Moderato is noble, his central Andante amorous, and his concluding Allegro assai vivace exuberant. Carlos Miguel Prieto leads the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería in a dynamic reading that sounds less like an accompaniment and more like a partnership of equals. In the purely orchestral Overture to a Drama and Concert Suite from Much Ado About Nothing, Prieto and the Mexican orchestra turn in a pair of tremendous performances.

Andrew Haveron and John Wilson deliver a fresh and intensely idiomatic reading of Korngolds Violin Concerto, coupled with the formidable String Sextet. One of the most sought-after violinists of his generation and a laureate of some of the most prestigious international violin competitions, Andrew Haveron studied in London at the Purcell School and the Royal College of Music. As a soloist, he has collaborated with conductors such as Jií Blohlávek, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Roger Norrington, David Robertson, Stanisaw Skrowaczewski, and John Wilson, performing a broad range of well-known and less familiar concertos with many of the finest orchestras in the UK. In 1999 he was appointed first violinist of the internationally acclaimed Brodsky Quartet.

If one did not know that French violinist Renaud Capucon had gotten married just two days earlier, one might almost have guessed it from these extraordinarily joyful recordings he made of Beethoven's and Korngold's violin concertos. Capucon was already well known among classical music cognoscenti from his many chamber music recordings for his supple phrasing, effortless lyricism, sweet tone, and big sound.

Except for John Williams’s theme from Schindler’s List , the compositions on violinist Alexander Gilman’s program with Perry So conducting the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra all suffered a certain amount of neglect after their first performances and recordings. Isaac Stern (and Louis Kaufman and Robert Gerle) brought Samuel Barber’s concerto to the attention of listeners, and now it has just about entered the repertoire, and students adopt it for competitions. Alexander Gilman produces a glowing tone from his Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin, but the engineers don’t set him so far forward as Columbia’s did Isaac Stern; if Gilman plays with less ruddy energy, he more than compensates for it in subtlety and refinement.