Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto

[Stanfordian]

I too have collected numerous recordings of the Tchaikovsky violin concerto. Those I admire the most, especially the first two, are:

Kyung-Wha Chung, Montreal Symphony Orchestra/Charles Dutoit - Decca (duly amended. This is the one I meant.)
Anne-Sophie Mutter, Wiener Philharmoniker/Andre Previn - DG
Viktoria Mullova, Boston Symphony Orchestra/Seiji Ozawa - Philips
Maxim Vengerov, Berliner Philharmoniker/Claudio Abbado - Teldec

[pastoralguy]

The Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto has been a kind of musical talisman throughout my life. My father had an Angel/Melodyia Lp of it that he'd bought in Canada. Igor Oistrakh was the soloist with the Moscow Philharmonic conducted by his father. There was a little photo on the back of Oistrakh which made me want to play the violin. Before my first lesson, my soon to be teacher asked me to bring along any music I wanted to play. Of course, I badgered her to take me to Rae Mackintosh' in Edinburgh to purchase the music! I can remember my teacher's face as I handed her the music and her smile as she replied, 'Well, let's work towards it!'

From then on, I would take the Tchaikovsky out every summer and, as my studies progressed, I found I could play more and more of it until I eventually played it whole to some friends at college. Carnegie Hall? No, but an achievement I was very proud of.

Of course, I've heard and bought every recording of it available and must have, literally, heard it thousands of times. However, the combination of the two Oistrakhs still remains my favourite although, sadly, it's never been released on cd so I have to rely on a reel to reel tape to hear it now. (Mind you, it sounds terrific!) I do check the catalogues regularly and live in hope. Oddly enough, a Canadian woman wrote to Gramophone last year asking for this very recording to be released.

Igor Oistrakh did record it three times more. Once in a live version with Kondrashian on a hard to find Japanese label. (Well, I had to do some digging to find it!) It's extremely exciting and is my second favourite recording. He recorded it again for the Collins label with Rafeal de Burgos and the LSO but, IMHO, it doesn't have the excitement of the earlier recordings. There's another version made, I think, in London but I can't remember much more than that.

I did hear him play it with the SNO under Gibson on November 20th 1981 and he signed my programme which is framed on my sitting room wall alongside the little photo which I found was the cover for his HMV disc of the Brahms sonatas. I bought the Lp at some expense my clever picture framer made a lovely job of it.

Other recordings?

Well, as I said, I probably have most of them and every soloist has something unique to add. I do like Vilde Frang's a lot and Janine Jansen is terrific. Nigel Kennedy played it well but the recording is so opaque it rather spoils it for me. What I DO notice is how well it's conducted! There are plenty of versions where one can tell the conductor is simply going through the whereas some bring out a lot of detail in the orchestration. Nelsons it extremely good for Baibe Skride, another super version, as is Daniel Harding for Jansen.

I do love Pat Kop's version because she made these jaded ears hear the work in a different way. Oh, and there's a version by Phillipe Graffin who plays a different cadenza to the usual one.

I've found that the central movement now means a lot more than simply being the boring slow bit to get though until the fireworks of the last movement!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

My favourites are the

Chung/Previn
Mutter/Previn
Milstein/Bohm

[cloughie]

My favourites are the

Chung/Previn
Mutter/Previn
Milstein/Bohm

Did you mean the DG Milstein/Abbado?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Did you mean the DG Milstein/Abbado?

[mikealdren]

I echo Pastoralguy's views and would add a vote for Repin's two recordings as modern favourites alongside Vilde Frang and Janine Jansen. Of the many Oistrakh versions, I've always loved the early Konwitschny mono version. His 1968 birthday concert is live and not perfect but it's a great video.

[EdgeleyRob]

I listened to Kyung Wha Chung/Dutoit earlier.
I don't know her recording with Previn but it must be special if it's better than this scintillating version.

[Stanfordian]

I listened to Kyung Wha Chung/Dutoit earlier.
I don't know her recording with Previn but it must be special if it's better than this scintillating version.

Hiya EdgeleyRob,

Actually I have made a mistake. I do mean the Kyung Wha Chung with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra under Charles Dutoit on Decca.

[Barbirollians]

Hiya EdgeleyRob,

Actually I have made a mistake. I do mean the Kyung Wha Chung with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra under Charles Dutoit on Decca.

I do prefer the earlier account with Previn . More carefree IMO .

[cloughie]

I do prefer the earlier account with Previn . More carefree IMO .

An esrly favourite of mine was Spivakovsky/Goehr - an Everest recording on WRC. Then I think that Chung/Previn and Milstein/abbabo topped my list. Maybe just before that Szeryng/Munch was lively enough.

[pastoralguy]

I listened to Midori's recording on Sony with the Berlin Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado this morning. It's a very well manicured performance and one that completely avoids virtuosity for its own sake. There's a lot of dynamic contrast both from soloist and orchestra. No sense of playing to the gallery here! It could almost be described as being a shade dull were it not for the obvious thought that has gone into it.

Actually, it reminds me of the time I heard her play it with the SNO sometime in the 1990's. I was expecting a BIG performance but she delivered an interpretation where every note was like a highly polished Jewel. (I even remember that the first half was Verklarte Nacht followed by the Dvorak Wind Serenade!)

Not, imvho, an 'everyday' performance but a connoisseur' delight.

[Hornspieler]

I believe that Kogan/Silvestri is very good, though haven't heard it for a while.

.

Yes indeed! Anyone who could tame Silvestri's somewhat erratic accompaniments gets my vote (and I was not playing on that recording!).

I would also recommend the Oistrachs, father and son and Gil Shaham.

A certain young lady who seems to be much favoured during the Prom Season, has had repeated goes at it over the last few years.

Hopefully, she will eventually "get it right" and move on to other repertoire, but please not the Walton.

HS

[mikealdren]

So many choices. Heifetz/Reiner is a safe bet. My favorites are Isaac Stern and David Oistrakh, both with Ormandy and Philly. Nathan Milstein had an aristocratic way with the piece that was quite touching. (Btw Stern, Heifetz and Milstein all studied with original dedicatee, Leopold Auer). Julia Fischer is a good modern choice, although I would love to hear Vengerov.

I must start by confessing to not being a great Vengerov fan but I have just listened to his Tchaikovsky for the first time in ages and it is as I remembered, terrific facility and very sweet toned playing but lacking the inner emotional intensity that is so important in this work. Why not try it on a free download (Spotify?) and see what you think, compared with your list above, I think you at least find it an big contrast!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

This Thread put me in mind of the first recording of the work (and one the first records I ever bought) I ever owned - the ten inch LP of the work played by Ralph Holmes with the Nuremberg PO conducted by Othmar Maga that came with the magazine The Great Composers; Tchaikovsky (Part One) and which I bought for 50p from Tesco in Blackburn on my way to a double bill of Dr No and From Russia With Love at the Odeon one Saturday afternoon in 1972. It was a favourite record of mine (and of my father's - I came home from school early one day and found him playing it; my "poncey music" was something he would violently avoid normally) - and I was delighted to see that it was given three stars in the first paperback (white cover) edition of the Penguin Guide.

I still have it - the magazine was written by Martin Cooper (author of Beethoven - the Last Decade and father of pianist Imogen) - but hadn't played it for decades; first because of the surface scratches, later because I don't have a turntable. I had seen a CD transfer in Eastbourne Our Price in the early '90s, but hadn't bought it, and it had gone when I next looked. I've never been able to find that CD transfer - until this Thread! Amazon seemed to have nothing - until I put "Ralph Holmes" as a general Search title, and an item with the unpromising heading "Not Found - Tchaikovsky's Greatest Hits". Looking further, musicMagpie had a tiny photo of the cover, and it was the CD I had passed by a quarter of a century ago. So, for 20p (+ P&P) I ordered a copy.

And it is a marvellous performance - not just from the wonderful soloist, but also from the orchestra, which brings out a real punch in the Music; a really exciting rhythmic drive, and some superb ensemble and orchestral soloistic playing. The slow movement is a little "straight" (just a sprinkle more imagination - such as Milstein provides - and this would have been a real winner) but the outer Movements give anyone a good run for their money. (Like Milstein and others, Holmes avoids those stammering little repetitions in the first group of the last movement - always a good idea, I think).

It is now available for 19p less than I paid - and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who loves this work. Buy it with the attitude "Well, at a penny (+ £1.26 P&P) it's not going to be to great a loss", and you'll be in exactly the right frame of mind to be bowled over by the performance.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B003461N30/

(The rest of the disc isn't much of a buy - an abbreviated [Flowers-less] Nutcracker Suite and a complete 1812 conducted by Serebrier - on an off-day, plus bits and pieces and excerpts. I doubt that I'll ever play those tracks again.)

[Beef Oven!]

By coincidence, Chik's VC was what I listened to this morning on an early morning walk to get eggs and milk for breakfast. Karajan, Ferras and the BPO. Gushingly sentimental and superromantic, just the way I like it done!