CD REVIEW
– AMERICAN
CONCERTOS
Baiba Skride (violin)
Gothenburg Symphony & Tampere
Philharmonic Orchestra
cond. Santtu-Matias Rouvali
Orfeo
C 932182A (58’43 &
58’38)
This is a release
from the end of last year, which
somehow eluded me but is well
worth recommending. I cannot do
better than quote from the back
of the wrapround case that it is
"In the grand tradition of
the best film music: three great
violin concertos –
demandingly virtuosic,
ravishingly orchestrated,
imaginative and immediately
accessible and rising above the
sterile debate about 'light' and
'serious' music."
Baiba Skride comes
from a musical family in Riga,
the capital of Latvia. I have
seen her perform live and she is
a wonderful violinist, who has
worked with umpteen of the
world's great orchestras and
deserves to be better known in
the UK.
The first item
featured is Leonard
Bernstein’s 1954 Serenade.
Christoph Schlüren's very
readable booklet notes describe
it as one of the most
idiosyncratic and indeed erratic
concertos ever written. I wrote
recently about Erich Wolfgang
Korngold in my review of John Wilson's
splendid album of his work. He
started on a violin concerto in
1937 but lost heart and set it
aside for eight years. It did not
get premiered until 10 years
after he had begun it. He uses
motifs from some of his film
music throughout.
Miklós Rózsa
(1907-95), who later was to
pick-up three movie Oscars –
for Spellbound, A
Double Life and Ben-Hur
– wrote his violin concerto
when he was aged 21, but held it
back as a failure. 25 years
later, encouraged (as Korngold
had been) by the master violinist
Jascha Heifitz, he resumed work
on it and the great man performed
the premiere in January 1956.
The second disc is
completed by another Bernstein
work, the 25-minute West Side
Story: Symphonic Dances from
1960, which I feel sure does not
need further explanation.
Although I do feel it is a tad
"undercooked".
Not to be
overlooked is the support given
by the two orchestras under the
baton of the 34-year-old Finnish
born Santtu-Matias Rouvali, who
earlier this year our
Philharmonia Orchestra announced
as its next principal conductor,
effective from the 2021-22
season, with an initial contract
of five years. The playing is
enhanced by the excellence of the
Orfeo sound recording.
Everyone involved
has the measure of this music
with what Skride herself
describes as its "technical
challenges". I hope readers
will enjoy the end product as
much as I do.
© Peter
Burt 2019
|
