Beethoven: Violin Concerto; Romances 1 & 2
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Music CD Cover
Composer: Ludwig van BeethovenConductor: Mstislav Rostropovich
Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra
Performer: Maxim Vengerov
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2006-01-10
Music Label: EMI Classics
Soundtracks:
- I. Allegro ma non troppo
- II. Larghetto
- III. Rondo. Allegro
Free Music Notes for Beethoven: Violin Concerto; Romances 1 & 2
Free Music Review: Rife (and Ripe) with Controversy!...
Hit: 5 Stars
.
This seems to be one of those special realizations which is either passionately loved or despised.
I am firmly in the former camp: this is my new favourite Beethoven Violin Concerto, although I am still very fond of Schneiderhan's and M?tter's readings.
Beethoven, Mozart: Violin Concertos / Schneiderhan, Jochum
Beethoven: Violin Concerto
.
But what makes this Vengerov's different? The expanded time-scale? Yes, but let's understand something: it's only in Movement I that this is strictly applicable. (It shares this regard with Gould's infamous Brahms' 1st Piano Concerto.) The other movements are totally within common duration.
Movement I is absolutely stately and reverent, meditative and deliberate. And Vengerov's tone is pure and clear and fervently effusive. The LSO's sound is also clearly enunciated and colourful. The rhythm is good, the pace simply slower. Vengerov's cadenza is refreshing after the usual--though much beloved--Kreisler's.
Movement II Larghetto is actually brisker than Schneiderhan's--and as sweet, but curiously soporiferous nevertheless. I was reminded of Keats' lines:
"Ripe was the drowsy hour;
The blissful cloud of summer-indolence
Benumb'd my eyes [and ears (!)]; my pulse grew less and less..."
The Major Works: Including Endymion, the Odes and Selected Letters (Oxford World's Classics)
One complaint could be made that the soloist is too enmeshed with the orchestra.
This is evident in Movement III where Vengerov is just too close to the orchestra--although some of the winds chime very nicely with the soloist: they swing well and the timbre is very Pastoral.
(It may be that the ensemble was trying to achieve an "authentic" sound such as would have been heard in Beethoven's time--that is, without individually microphoning the soloist [?].)
For major works it's probably nice to have a brisk reading and a more meditative interpretation.
For the latter, see:
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6, Schubert: Symphony No. 5 / B?hm, Vienna Philharmonic Orch.
Beethoven: Symphonie No. 9
.
Beethoven: Violin Concerto; Romances 1 & 2 Poster
To violinists, studying and performing the Beethoven Concerto is the ultimate challenge and achievement. Vengerov says that recording it, especially under Rostropovich, his friend, mentor and frequent collaborator, is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. Among the Concerto's innumerable recordings, this must be one of the greatest. Vengerov and Rostropovich are considered specialists of the romantic literature, especially that of Russia, but their Beethoven is a paradigm of classical nobility: calm, simple, elegant, inwardly expressive. Vengerov's tone is ravishing, pristinely pure, with a silvery shimmer and a golden glow; his bowing is seamless, letting him spin long, finely shaped phrases, his vibrato is focussed and intense. Playing from deep inside the music, he needs no external effects, not even slides, and gives musical meaning to every note, even in the accompanying passages. He uses his own brilliant, stylistically apt cadenzas. The first movement is stately and quite slow, as if the patrician conductor were restraining his youthfully fiery soloist; the second is serenely celestial, the third sprightly and mercurial. The Romances have a natural, lyrical flow, the dramatic sections balancing the meditative ones perfectly; the treacherous double-stops are impeccable. The orchestra is excellent, but the dynamic contrasts are excessive: the tuttis explode, so keep your finger on the volume control. --Edith EislerClassical Music CDs
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