Elgar's Violin Concerto
Elgar's Violin Concerto
The Gramophone Choice
Elgar Violin Concerto** Delius Violin Concerto*
Albert Sammons vn *Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra / Malcolm Sargent; **New Queen’s Hall Orchestra / Henry Wood
Naxos Historical mono 8 110951 (67' · ADD) Recorded **1929, *1944. Buy from Amazon
Albert Sammons’s 1929 account of Elgar’s Violin Concerto with Sir Henry Wood and the New Queen’s Hall Orchestra remains the finest version ever made, outstripping even the legendary Menuhin/Elgar collaboration from three years later (see below) in terms of authoritative grip, intuitive poetry and emotional candour. Previous transfers to CD have varied from satisfactory to merely tolerable and unacceptably botched, so it’s a pleasure to encounter Mark Obert-Thorn’s judicious restoration for Naxos.
Delius heard Sammons perform the Elgar in May 1915 and was so bowled over that he set about writing a concerto for the formidable virtuoso. Sammons premiered the work with Boult in January 1919 but had to wait a full quarter of a century before committing it to disc. Here is another irreplaceable document: Sammons was an assiduous champion of this glorious music and, although the solo playing hasn’t quite the effortless technical mastery of its companion here, his wise and unforced interpretation penetrates to the very core of Delius’s lovely vision. An admirable introduction to a truly great fiddler, irresistible at the price.
Additional Recommendations
Violin Concerto*. Enigma Variations**
*Yehudi Menuhin vn *London Symphony Orchestra, **Royal Albert Hall Orchestra / Sir Edward Elgar
EMI 566979-2 (75' · AAD) Recorded 1932, 1926. By from Amazon
Elgar’s conducting for Menuhin in the Violin Concerto’s opening orchestral tutti is magnificent, as is his solicitous, attentive accompaniment throughout the work. Menuhin’s youthful, wonderfully intuitive musicianship in fact needed little ‘instruction’, and the success of the recording may be judged from the fact that there have been few periods in the years since it was first issued when it hasn’t been available in some shape or form.
Of the Enigma Variations, recorded in 1926, one could write at length, but let one example suffice: Elgar’s portrait of himself in the last of the variations. This is often declared to be bombastic – and can, of course, sound so – but as Elgar conducts it one receives no such impression. He had successfully achieved a work of great distinction and originality, and here rejoices at its completion and perhaps in his own great technical skill, so hard-won and here so superbly displayed. That is not bombast: and how touching is the reference to the Lady Elgar variation. One can only revel in this full-blooded, uninhibited music and only wish the Enigma had had the advantage of the better recording enjoyed by other recordings of the day.
Since the original matrices of the Cello Concerto were destroyed, EMI’s engineers had to return to the 1957 tape for this transfer; although the 1957 engineers did not quite capture all the body of the originals there’s an impressive clarity in the transfer, now brightened a little more for CD.
Coupled with Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending
Nigel Kennedy vn City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Sir Simon Rattle
EMI 556413-2 (72' · DDD) Buy from Amazon
Astonishingly, in the case of the first two movements at least, this release, recorded during the week following a live concert at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall in July 1997, fully recreates the heady excitement of that memorable event. From every conceivable point of view – authority, panache, intelligence, intuitive poetry, tonal beauty and emotional maturity – Kennedy surpasses his 1985 Gramophone Award-winning EMI recording with the LPO under Vernon Handley.
The first movement is a magnificent achievement all round, with tension levels extraordinarily high for a studio project. Rattle launches the proceedings in exemplary fashion, his direction passionate, ideally flexible and texturally lucid (the antiphonally divided violins help). The CBSO, too, is on top form. But it’s Kennedy who rivets the attention, from his commanding initial entry onwards. There’s no hiding in this of all scores and Kennedy penetrates to the very essence of ‘the soul enshrined within’ in his melting presentation of the ‘Windflower’ theme – Elgar’s dolce semplice realised to tear-spilling perfection.
The slow movement is almost as fine. Only the finale oddly dissatisfies. Not in terms of technical address or co-ordination (both of which are stunning); rather, for all the supreme accomplishment on show, the results aren’t terribly moving. Despite any lingering doubts about this last movement we’re still left with an enormously stimulating and well-engineered display.
The fill-up is a provocative account of The Lark Ascending, which Kennedy (whose tone is ravishing) and Rattle spin out to 17 and a half minutes.
Gil Shaham vn Chicago Symphony Orchestra / David Zinman
Canary Classics CC06 (48’ · DDD) Recorded live 2007. Buy from Amazon
It is good to welcome an all-American performance of this most British of concertos that is so thrillingly passionate. David Zinman has said that of all concertos this is his favourite, something confirmed in the playing he draws from the Chicago Symphony, its richness as well as its characteristic polish. The detail revealed in the long tuttis also demonstrates the care with which Zinman has prepared this performance. The recording on the Canary Classics label (Gil Shaham’s own) is taken from live performances, and that adds to the impact, with the opulent sound matching the playing.
Gil Shaham is always one of the most sensitive and responsive of the high-powered violin virtuosos. His range of tone and of dynamic is extreme, some might feel too much so, when some of his pianissimos, as in the second subject of the first movement, are so gentle that they can barely be heard against the orchestra. Though in that key passage he slows from the basic speed – something adopted by virtually every soloist in this work – there is nothing self-indulgent or sentimental in it, rather less so than in Kennedy’s fine version with Vernon Handley conducting. Equally, Shaham’s pronounced vibrato is always perfectly controlled.
The slow movement brings refinement and purity, while the main Allegro in the finale is fast and light, leading to a deeply dedicated account of the long accompanied cadenza. This now stands as one of the very finest versions of this concerto, and even though the disc, unlike most, offers no coupling, it is well worth the price.
Coupled with Serenade, Op 20
James Ehnes vn Philharmonia Orchestra / Sir Andrew Davis
Onyx ONYX4025 (61’ · DDD) Buy from Amazon
Not since Nigel Kennedy’s 1997 EMI remake with Rattle and the CBSO (see above) has the Elgar received a recording as thrillingly combustible, imaginative and involving as this. James Ehnes brings to this great concerto a rapt identification, tingling temperament and glowing ardour. Not only is his technical address impeccable and intonation miraculously true, his contribution is remarkable for its intrepid emotional scope, athletic agility and (perhaps above all) jaw-dropping delicacy (nowhere more heart-tuggingly potent than in the finale’s accompanied cadenza).
Ehnes is also fortunate in enjoying the support of Sir Andrew Davis, a proven Elgarian whose wonderfully perceptive conducting has authoritative sweep, elasticity and fiery passion to spare as well as a very special understanding of those moments of aching intimacy in which this of all scores abounds: what a ravishing backcloth he provides for the ineffable appearance of the ‘Windflower’ theme in the same movement and how affecting are the strings’ songful sighs in the ensuing Andante. One or two unruly timpani thwacks aside, the Philharmonia’s response exhibits polish, grace and dedication.
Some might take issue with the sound, which is a little shrouded and lacking something in alluring bloom (the actual balance is otherwise very much as you would hear from a seat in the stalls). No matter, this remains a performance of conspicuous pedigree and insight, guaranteed to make you fall in love all over again with this sublime music and which can only boost Ehnes’s standing as one of the most gifted and charismatic fiddlers around. Davis’s utterly unforced and ravishingly moving account of the entrancing Serenade makes a cherishable pendant.
Violin Concerto*. Cadenza accompagnata*. Crown of India – Interlude*. Polonia, Op 76
*Tasmin Little vn Royal Scottish National Orchestra / Sir Andrew Davis
Chandos CHSA5083 (75’ · DDD/DSD) Buy from Amazon
A sequence of distinguished non-British violinists have recently offered new versions of Elgar’s Violin Concerto but it is refreshing to have another version, marking the work’s centenary, from a favourite British player. The contrasts are illuminating, not least with James Ehnes (see above), who like Little has Andrew Davis as his conductor.
The most striking difference comes in the finale, where Ehnes, like Gil Shaham (also see above), treats the rapid figurations fiercely. Little, on the other hand, finds an element of wit in the fast-moving figuration, leading to a more tender treatment of the lyrical contrasting sections. All three play with ample vibrato, and Little and Ehnes bring authentic portamentos to various phrases, though never excessively.
As to timing, Little and Ehnes are roughly similar in the first movement, with Shaham some 30 seconds quicker, all three allowing for warmly expressive phrasing. In the slow movement the timings of all three are similar again, yet Little stands out in playing a degree more delicately, though there is a case for the slightly more robust approach of both Enhnes and Shaham.
The nub of any performance lies in the long accompanied cadenza in the finale, where depth of meditation is an essential. There all three of these artists play with a free expressiveness which never reflects the technical problems but suggests improvisation. Overall in the finale Shaham is markedly faster, with Ehnes a minute slower than Little, though all three sustain their speeds magnetically.
Between these versions a key comparison lies in the couplings. Shaham has none, while Ehnes has the Serenade for strings. The new version scores palpably in the extra interest of the fill-ups, the first a version prepared by Elgar himself for the 1916 recording of the accompanied cadenza, greatly reduced in length and given a harp in addition to the group of strings. Again, Little’s playing is masterly, as it is in the brief interlude that Elgar wrote for his masque at the time of the 1911 Durbar in Delhi, The Crown of India.
Crowning the whole project is a stunning performance of Elgar’s 1916 tribute to beleaguered Poland during the First World War. It may be a simple potpourri of melodies but Elgar plainly regarded it as a challenge to his supreme orchestral gifts. Andrew Davis brings out all the natural swagger in these patriotic themes and is helped not just by virtuoso playing by the RSNO but by recording that is outstandingly vivid even by Chandos’s highest standards.
Coupled with Introduction and Allegro, Op 47
Kennedy vn LPO / Handley
EMI 345792-2 (69' · DDD) Buy from Amazon
Kennedy’s superb first recording of the Elgar Violin Concerto won the Gramophone Record of the Year in 1985 and is now one of EMI’s Great Recordings of the Century.
