Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto

[Guest]

Listening to BaL this morning has put me in a Tchaikovsky mood. Any recommendations for the VC? I only seem to have Kennedy's recording.

[Beef Oven!]

Listening to BaL this morning has put me in a Tchaikovsky mood. Any recommendations for the VC? I only seem to have Kennedy's recording.

I don’t know about a recommendation, but today’s BaL put me in a Chik mood too, and I listened to Christian Ferras and Herbert von Karajan, BPO. So sad that CF took his own life. Depression must be the cruelest malady.

[Bryn]

[Beef Oven!]

I was going to buy that a while back, but I listened to it first and I didn’t enjoy it. It could well be because I am so accustomed to a romantic approach to this work. I thought it lacked heart and soul and was strangely un-energetic. I’m getting deja vu, I think this recording has been discussed on here before.

[teamsaint]

anybody in the London area, who fancies a night out, could hear this work performed by Gil Shaham with the Philharmonia on Thursday night, at the RFH.

[Barbirollians]

Knocks Pat Kop and her mad recording into a cocked hat

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tchaikovsky-Violin-Concerto-Major-Sibelius/dp/B004NSHBCK/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1465083646&sr=8-14&keywords=tchaikovsky+violin+concerto

[richardfinegold]

Listening to BaL this morning has put me in a Tchaikovsky mood. Any recommendations for the VC? I only seem to have Kennedy's recording.

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.
All the discussion about the 6th has made me year for one of my first loves, the 5th. Listening to Monteux/Boston now, the recording that so mesmerized me in my teens. It still has that tingle factor. It sounds like Monteux really believes in the music. No throw away phrases and the finale is perfectly paced

[Dave2002]

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

http://www.analogplanet.com/content/kogans-spectacular-1960-tchaikovsky-violin-concerto-reissued-electric-recording-company#KlLOJCma5E00AOFs.97

Not sure if there are current CD versions available - though I have one somewhere.

Ah yes - here it is - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tchaikovsky...ogan+Silvestri That looks like mine.

£7.25 delivered from the marketplace.

emusic also have it as a download, for not a lot - http://www.emusic.com/album/orchestr...sion/15179463/

I downloaded the Souvenir d'un lieu cher which I'd not heard/heard of before. Kogan was a superb player, though here is only one movement. This is in an orchestral arrangement by Glazunov.

You can hear it in piano accompaniment versions (original) here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJXIcEtbVxs Éléonore Darmon and Éric Astoul - acoustic has lots of echo -

and here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZXNsT56PVk Julia Fischer - lovely playing, not sure who the pianist is.

There's also a CD/SACD by Fischer of the concerto - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tchaikovsky...er+Tchaikovsky

and it's on Youtube too - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J7ND4GQ8Cc (live from Paris with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Vasily Petrenko) and you can probably find the CD version with Kreizberg there too if you look hard. The live Petrenko Youtube is very, very good, and there are some lovely touches from the orchestra, particularly in the last movement. Ultimately the video may be distracting, so consider listening with the video turned off. There is an encore - the 3rd movement of Hindemith's sonata in G minor. There is a second encore, Sarabande from Bach's sonata in D minor.

[gurnemanz]

Bronisław Hubermann from 1928 as put together by Mark Obert-Thorn should be mentioned. Cheapest on Naxos. Old-fashioned and individualistic but brilliant to my ears.

[Barbirollians]

Ida Haendel in 1945 with Basil Cameron is a cracker of a recording.

[Pulcinella]

The recording on my shelves is Milstein/VPO/Abbado, in a 2CD DG Compact Classics set (remember those?) that includes Argerich/RPO/Dutiot in PC1, Rostropovich/BPO/Karajan in the Rococo Variations, and a BPO/Karajan Serenade for strings.

Not sure how well thought of it is, but it suits me well enough! Milstein is mentioned passim in post 7.

This is the set:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tchaikovsky-concerto-Argerich-VARIATIONS-ROSTROPOVICH/dp/B009TRT34Y/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1465116963&sr=8-5&keywords=Tchaikovsky+milstein+argerich

There's a coupling of the violin and first piano concertos from this set; s/h copies available for as little as £0.01 (+p+p):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tchaikovsky-Piano-Concerto-Violin/dp/B000025WSZ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1465116963&sr=8-1&keywords=Tchaikovsky+milstein+argerich

[visualnickmos]

I reckon Oistrakh/Ormandy/Philadelphia is pretty hard to beat.... just hear the control and crispness of those ultra-high notes in some of the violin passages....

Having said that, I think there are numerous incontournable recordings of this - Kogan, Milstein, Perlman, Stern etc, etc - all with something special to offer... a true 'evergreen' of a work , if ever there was one.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

One consideration is whether you want the cuts in the finale. Perlman plays every note in his recorded versions, but normally makes the small cuts in live performances.

[Ferretfancy]

Oh Dear!! I seem to have accumulated 22 recordings of this concerto, and they all have their merits.There are a few that I return to often, naturally including Heifetz / Reiner. Then there's one of my earliest collected, Ricci /LSO/ Sargent, and the beautiful Francescatti version with the NYPO. One special favourite is Campoli /LSO/ Argenta, and last but not least comes Joshua Bell with the BPO and Tilson Thomas

Seeing Bell in live performance is quite a revelation. He doesn't have a huge tone but produces wonderful sweetness in the second movement with well nigh perfect accuracy in the finale.

[peterkin]

Listening to BaL this morning has put me in a Tchaikovsky mood. Any recommendations for the VC? I only seem to have Kennedy's recording.

Gluzman/Litton does it for me.