Mozart Violin Concertos

[Barbirollians]

I love these works and feel they are somewhat underrated . The fact they were written by a 19 year old always strikes me as astonishing .

What are your favourite recordings ? From the 1960s I have a very soft spot for the Menuhin/Bath Festival and Oistrakh/BPO sets - high fat as HIPPites might regard them . I was very taken with Mullova's disc of three but she never recorded the others - the Fischer/Kreizberg set is another I admire a great deal and Mutter's marvellous disc of 3 and 5 with Karajan .

Perlman/Levine was always a bit too slick for me . I have not heard the Grumiaux set or any of the HIPPite contenders like Podger and Carmignola .

[Petrushka]

Grumiaux/LSO/Colin Davis is a great favourite of mine and you really should make room for it. Beautifully recorded too. Agree about the Mutter 3 & 5 with Karajan - a lovely disc. She recorded 2 & 4 with Muti though I've never heard it. I also have 3 & 4 with Zino Francescatti and Bruno Walter.

[akiralx]

Marianne Thorsen in 3-5 are superb:

http://www.sa-cd.net/showtitle/4201

[jayne lee wilson]

Abbado/Carmignola/Orchestra Mozart on DG Archiv won't suit everyone, but I love their interpretative freshness, textural lightness, rhythmic poise and vivacity.(The go-faster stripes on the violins don't bother ME...). Pamela Frank/Tonhalle Zurich/Zinman another personal favourite, a cooler, crisper view than, say, the classic Grumiaux/Davis, but I prefer it, again for its lighter orchestral textures and generally very poised and truly classical approach. (And excellent sound).

The Bruggen/On18thC/Zehetmair set on Glossa is something of a curate's egg; when Bruggen conducts as in 2,3 and k.364 (CD2) things go well, very well indeed; but when Zehetmair leads from the fiddle in 1,4 and 5 the approach is too impersonal and inexpressive.

[MickyD]

Simon Standage with the AAM and Hogwood is good and so is Monica Huggett with the OAE, and that has the added attraction of now being available on a Virgin budget twofer. But what a pity that the excellent Andrew Manze didn't record all of the concertos with the English Concert for Harmonia Mundi.

[Hornspieler]

Wolfgang Schneiderhan/Berlin Philharmonic/Jochum

A no-nonsense approach. He let the music speak for itself.

HS

[mikealdren]

Grumiaux is, of course, superb but the orchestral style is a bit dated. Having said that, I love several older recordings. Oistrakh is very much my favourite violinist and I urge you to hear his earlier recordings, many of them and all fine. Heifetz made some surprisingly good recordings, especially his last of K219. Szeryng was good too, his coupling of 219 and 271a is excellent.

Of more recent recordings, I share your view of Mullova. Zehetmair with Philharmonia is good (and cheap) on Apex.

Mike

[makropulos]

My favourite by some distance is Richard Tognetti and the Australian Chamber Orchestra on two BIS records (1, 2 and 4 on the first; 3, 5 and the Sinfonia concertante on the second).

[verismissimo]

I've always loved the Johanna Martzy recording of No 4 (BRSO/Jochum), which I bought on LP for 10 shillings. I noticed a while ago that it was offered for about £140 on a second-hand LP site, and its used CD incarnation (nla) is currently at £53.

Cheap as chips as a download, of course.

[LeMartinPecheur]

My first such purchase was Oistrakh/PO in No 3 with Gilels/PO/Ludwig in Beethoven piano concerto No 4 on the other side. Some coupling at Concert Classics prices c1972!

While I've now got a fair few recordings of No 3 and the others, including Oistrakh's BPO complete set, it's this one that holds my affections. Though to be honest, when I want to hear a Mozart string concerto these days my fingers would always reach towards the Sinfonia Concertante

[french frank]

Crumbs, well, enough versions to choose from. I started the violin sonatas last night, of which I have had the Complete Mozart boxed set for some time. Quite pretty. Any really substantial ones to make for?

[mikealdren]

What a record, I bought it too, probably about 1970. The Beethoven is probably even better, a truly great Performance.

Mike

[Nick Armstrong]

At the risk of unpopularity, I must say I've never really rated these pieces, from a personal point of view. After hearing each of them a few times, I found them pretty but didn't subsequently find that they had sufficient interest to be music I want to listen to again. I have to say my heart sinks if they appear on a concert programme or on the radio.

I do have the Grumiaux/David set but it's years since it was taken off the shelf...

I would say it was over-exposure but it's not really. And it's in COMPLETE contradistinction to Mozart's piano concertos which as often mentioned here I find inexhaustible, delightful, moving, evergreen... even the early ones. Among my desert island pieces.

It's an extreme example of a general preference I have, mind you - broadly, I'd always prefer to hear a piano concerto to a violin concerto (with a very few exceptions in each case). I wonder if it's because there are just more notes in the solo part and hence more scope for the sort of sound combinations I like...

Anyway, I'm sorry I can't like them more

[jayne lee wilson]

What about, say, the slow movement of No.1, Cal? It always seems to me one of Mozart's most sublime, paradisical evocations. Especially lovely in the Frank/Zinman set.

[Nick Armstrong]

What about, say, the slow movement of No.1, Cal? It always seems to me one of Mozart's most sublime, paradisical evocations. Especially lovely in the Frank/Zinman set.

I might give it another listen.... .... just because it's you...