I thought I’d kick off this section with a new CD I purchased on Saturday, which I think would meet Lord Byron’s approval  – Janine Janson’s new recording of the Mendelssohn and Bruch concertos. It’s next week’s ‘CD of the Week’ and I bought it after reading a rave review in Independent Record Review.

The Mendelssohn was the first violin concerto I got to know as a teenager, on a cassette with Nathan Milstein, the VPO/ Abbado. The first CD version I bought was Nigel Kennedy’s with the ECO/ Jeffrey Tate. I’ve also got a period instrument version with Viktoria Mullova and the ORR/ Gardiner. The thing that struck me most about this new recording, taken from concert performances, is the outstanding contribution of the Leipzig Gewandhaus under Riccardo Chailly – impassioned, committed, plenty of heft, with all sorts of detail I’d not noticed before. Jansen plays extremely well, both the violin and the viola in the little Bruch Romance in F, both lyrical and expressive – a most impressive concerto disc.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Concertos-Romance-Max-Bruch/dp/B000JRYMDU/sr=8-1/qid=1171915754/ref=pd_ka_1/202-5913406-5145461?ie=UTF8&s=music

I haven’t heard anything else by Chailly conducting his new orchestra – has anyone heard their Mendelssohn 2 or their new Schumann disc? If the results of this are anything to go by, there should be plenty of treasures from Leipzig to come.

Thinking of the Mendelssohn/ Bruch concertos, IRR uses some vintage recordings as comparisons – Bustabo/ Mengelberg and Oistrakh/ Matacic in the Mendelssohn, Francescatti/ Szell in the Bruch. Which other recordings would folks recommend in these concertos? Are the other Bruch violin concertos worth hearing? I do have the viola/ clarinet double concerto, which I find doesn’t really go anywhere, thought it’s pleasant enough.

Who is  considered to be the best ever performer of Bruch's concerto I wonder?
I love this concerto.

I expect so. I have only one coupling of Bruch 1 & 2 but several Bruch/Mendelssohn.


That was I think from 1958, I have the LP (in mono).

I also have Ricci performing both on a Decca LP from 1958, so I wonder if Decca and HMV released these couplings simultaneously.

The sad thing (for me) is I haven't played those albums in years.

John W

Lots of violinists play viola too - but many play it like a big violin.

William Primrose began life as a violinist, but switched to viola.  To my ear, he is still playing the violin.  His vibrato is just a little too frantic for the lower, more sonorous tone of the viola.  Much more like a proper (!) viola player would be Tertis, or Lazlo Czerny.

To me, the viola really is a different instrument from the violin, requiring different vibrato, shifts of position, and fingering.  Bow pressure requirements are also different, given the different tension in the strings.

In the moden world, Jansen and Vengerov do switch to viola occasionally, as does Isabelle van Keulen.  Interesting, but let's hope it doesn't take work from the likes of Rivka Golani, and other dedicated violists.

Tommo

I think that Lawrence Power is a very good viola player. He joined Vengerov in the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante K364 at the Proms last year and plays with a big, muscular sound. I enjoyed his recording of York Bowen’s viola concerto and have seen him a number of times this season performing with the Nash Ensemble.

I would say, however, that Jansen’s performance of the Bruch Viola Romance is gorgeously done and makes for a gentle interlude between the two well-known, often-paired concertos.

They are doing a repeat performance with the same group as at the Proms on 11 May at the Barbican. Not to be missed I suggest.

Quite a few violinists seem moonlight on the viola but I can't think of any of the 'big name' viola players who venture into violin territory. Is it largely one-way traffic?

Anyway, back to the original question......

I'm just listening to the Bruch - Milstein / Philharmonia / Barzin on an HMV Concert Classics LP from 1961.  (It sounds remarkably similar to a tape I have in the car, which may even be the same recording....)

I just love Milstein's playing.  As he goes up runs, his fingerwork is soooo clear!  It's like each finger dropping onto the string is a little sparkle at the beginning of each note  makes for fantastic claity.  And he has a beautiful vibrato - quite narrow, but not too fast and consistant.

It too is paired with the Mendelssohn.  From what I remember, some brilliant rubato in the first movement (e.g. going up the diminished 7th bit that starts on G and is in octatve one time round and broken triplet octatves another).  Wonderful tenderness with sme of the tricky souble stopping in the 2nd movement (and again that never lumpy sweet vibrato).  And a fast last movement.

Milstein has to be one of my favourites......

But I'll let you know about the Campoli, Olevsky, and Oistrakh later....

Tommo

Many thanks for these fascinating insights, Tommo. It's really valuable to have a player's views on a recording...I also read your Schoenberg/ Julliard comments and confess I own this disc and hadn't spotted too much wrong!

Have you heard the Milstein/ Abbado Mendelssohn? I'm sure that was on the DG cassette I had as a 'youngster', but was more taken (probably with the pieces rather than the performances) by Kubelik's 'Midsummer Night's Dream' and Italian Symphony which were packed onto it. Thinking back, this was probably because I found that violin sound on most cassettes was pretty poor.

Looking forward to further insights,

Bws,

Mark