Korngold. Rózsa. Waxman - Violin Concertos

Jascha Heifetz vn Gregor Piatigorsky vc Chamber Orchestra; Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra / Alfred Wallenstein; Dallas Symphony Orchestra / Walter Hendl; RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra / Donald Voorhees

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(70' · ADD)

Korngold Violin Concerto
Rózsa Violin Concerto, Op 24. Tema con variazioni, Op 29
Waxman Fantasy on Bizet’s ‘Carmen’

Recorded 1946-63.

Heifetz’s legendary recording of the Korngold Concerto serves a double purpose: as an effective introduction to Korngold’s seductive musical style, and as the best possible example of Heifetz’s violin artistry. The work itself was written at the suggestion of Bronisπaw Huberman but it was Heifetz who gave the premiere in 1947. It calls on material that Korngold had also used in three of his film scores, although the way he welds the themes into a three-movement structure is masterly enough to suggest that the concerto came to him ‘of a piece’. The very opening would be enough to seduce most listeners.

Miklós Rózsa’s Concerto has its roots in the composer’s Hungarian soil and echoes of Bartók are rarely absent. But whereas Korngold’s score is taken from movie music, Rózsa’s (or parts of it) became a film score – namely The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. Rózsa’s self-possessed, skilfully written Tema con variazoni was taken, in 1962, from a much larger work then in progress, but Heifetz and Piatigorsky play it in a reduced orchestration.

As to the Carmen Fantasy by Franz Waxman (another notable film composer), its luscious tunes and frightening technical challenges were written with the great violinist in mind. It’s a stunning piece of playing, and wears its years lightly. The other recordings sound far better, and the Rózsa items are in stereo.