Schumann Violin Concerto

[richardfinegold]

I have read about the Schumann Violin Concerto for years, but never actually heard the piece until today. Henryk Szerying recorded it for Mercury in the early 60s and it is included in the first Mercury Big Reissue box, which I am working my way through.
The history behind this piece will probably always trump it's musical value. I'm assuming that most forumites have at least a sketchy knowledge: It was a product of Schumann's last days before his Psychotic breakdown (reportedly he heard angels dictating themes to him);
Brahms and Clara worked hard to suppress it, and succeeded for the better part of 70 years; the Violinist that was to introduce it it, Jelly d'Aryanhi (Joachim's great niece and the inspiration behind Ravel's Tzigane and some Bartok works) claimed to be receiving instructions from the Composer from the Great Beyond; and ultimately the Nazis controlled the first performance, by the distinctly non Nazi Violinist Georg Kulankempf. Someone should write a book about the history of this piece, if it hasn't already been written.
Anyway, after 2 hearings it's a pleasant enough piece, not showing any obvious signs of mental instability. I would rank it of slightly less interest than the Cello Concerto. For me it would occupy the same niche in the Composer's body of works that Dvorak's Piano Concerto occupies for that Composer--worth a listen, but paling in interest compared to Concertos that were written for other instruments by the same Composer(s).
Are there any particular recordings that others would recommend that make the best possible case for the work?

[jayne lee wilson]

Ulf Wallin, Robert Schumann Philharmonie/Frank Beerman is on a 24-bit/CD/SACD BIS release and it's excellent - the better for including a lovely performance of the violin-version of the cello concerto, and the Op.131 Fantasy. Great album, buy it!

I really love this Violin Concerto - the way the dark obsessiveness of the 1st movement moves through one of his loveliest slow movements to such a joyful, graceful Polonaise. It's just echt-essential-Schumann for me. Fascinatingly close connections to the 3rd Violin Sonata too.

Szeryng and Kulenkampf (great transfer over at Pristine) are both very good... a pet favourite of mine is the very individual, very urgent live one with Igor Oistrakh/USSR LTVSO/Rozhdestvensky, this on the Russian Venezia label only at HMV Japan - I think it may once have been out on BMG years ago. 1969 mono. Perhaps not a library choice whatever that is!

More recently I enjoyed Renaud Capucon/Mahler CO/Harding on Virgin, haven't heard it for a bit but I think I would now prefer the BIS Wallin one mentioned above...

[Ferretfancy]

I have read about the Schumann Violin Concerto for years, but never actually heard the piece until today. Henryk Szerying recorded it for Mercury in the early 60s and it is included in the first Mercury Big Reissue box, which I am working my way through.
The history behind this piece will probably always trump it's musical value. I'm assuming that most forumites have at least a sketchy knowledge: It was a product of Schumann's last days before his Psychotic breakdown (reportedly he heard angels dictating themes to him);
Brahms and Clara worked hard to suppress it, and succeeded for the better part of 70 years; the Violinist that was to introduce it it, Jelly d'Aryanhi (Joachim's great niece and the inspiration behind Ravel's Tzigane and some Bartok works) claimed to be receiving instructions from the Composer from the Great Beyond; and ultimately the Nazis controlled the first performance, by the distinctly non Nazi Violinist Georg Kulankempf. Someone should write a book about the history of this piece, if it hasn't already been written.
Anyway, after 2 hearings it's a pleasant enough piece, not showing any obvious signs of mental instability. I would rank it of slightly less interest than the Cello Concerto. For me it would occupy the same niche in the Composer's body of works that Dvorak's Piano Concerto occupies for that Composer--worth a listen, but paling in interest compared to Concertos that were written for other instruments by the same Composer(s).
Are there any particular recordings that others would recommend that make the best possible case for the work?

I have come to enjoy this concerto rather more with repeated hearings. I had a similar problem with the 2nd Symphony, which I always had a difficulty with before. The Szeryng on Mercury is certainly good, although it isn't one of the very best for sound. I also have an excellent Decca with Joshua Bell and the Cleveland Orchestra and Dohnanyi. It's coupled with a fine performance of the Brahms. I don't know how you feel about historic performances, but Dutton used to offer a version with Kulenkampff and the Berlin Phil under Schmidt-Isserstedt coupled with his great performance of the Beethoven. This is really special, you may be able to find a second hand copy.

[Barbirollians]

The very first recording of the complete work was Menuhin/NYPO/Barbirolli available on Naxos . Head and shoulders above the rest in my opinion Menuhin at his very best. Kulenkampff plays an edition mucked about with by Hindemith .

I like Kremer's first version with Muti best of modern versions but I have not heard either the Tetzlaff or the two very recent versions from Wallin or Skride. Marwood is to be avoided - very boring indeed.

[richardfinegold]

Ulf Wallin, Robert Schumann Philharmonie/Frank Beerman is on a 24-bit/CD/SACD BIS release and it's excellent - the better for including a lovely performance of the violin-version of the cello concerto, and the Op.131 Fantasy. Great album, buy it!

I really love this Violin Concerto - the way the dark obsessiveness of the 1st movement moves through one of his loveliest slow movements to such a joyful, graceful Polonaise. It's just echt-essential-Schumann for me. Fascinatingly close connections to the 3rd Violin Sonata too.

Szeryng and Kulenkampf (great transfer over at Pristine) are both very good... a pet favourite of mine is the very individual, very urgent live one with Igor Oistrakh/USSR LTVSO/Rozhdestvensky, this on the Russian Venezia label only at HMV Japan - I think it may once have been out on BMG years ago. 1969 mono. Perhaps not a library choice whatever that is!

More recently I enjoyed Renaud Capucon/Mahler CO/Harding on Virgin, haven't heard it for a bit but I think I would now prefer the BIS Wallin one mentioned above...

Having listened to it a few times now, I am wondering why Brahms and Clara were so eager to suppress it.

[richardfinegold]

I have come to enjoy this concerto rather more with repeated hearings. I had a similar problem with the 2nd Symphony, which I always had a difficulty with before. The Szeryng on Mercury is certainly good, although it isn't one of the very best for sound. I also have an excellent Decca with Joshua Bell and the Cleveland Orchestra and Dohnanyi. It's coupled with a fine performance of the Brahms. I don't know how you feel about historic performances, but Dutton used to offer a version with Kulenkampff and the Berlin Phil under Schmidt-Isserstedt coupled with his great performance of the Beethoven. This is really special, you may be able to find a second hand copy.

I do collect historical recordings, but in general I find them most useful when I have already come to love and appreciate a piece. For example, hearing Rachmaninoff play his own Concertos was a revelatory experience for me, but perhaps would not have been so if these recordingshad been my first exposure to his music. I think that I would like to assimilate this Concerto better before I go that route.

[Barbirollians]

I think the finale was seen as the problem as i recall .

[visualnickmos]

I have a version with Szeryng and the LSO conducted by Dorati (rec. 1968, Decca Eloquence) which I enjoy very much. Bought speculatively in an HMV sale a while back - aarrrh, them was the days! Also has Mendelssohn's vc, as well as a few bits and bobs...... worth hunting out. Recommended - by me at least!

[hafod]

I have come to enjoy this concerto rather more with repeated hearings. I had a similar problem with the 2nd Symphony, which I always had a difficulty with before. The Szeryng on Mercury is certainly good, although it isn't one of the very best for sound. I also have an excellent Decca with Joshua Bell and the Cleveland Orchestra and Dohnanyi. It's coupled with a fine performance of the Brahms. I don't know how you feel about historic performances, but Dutton used to offer a version with Kulenkampff and the Berlin Phil under Schmidt-Isserstedt coupled with his great performance of the Beethoven. This is really special, you may be able to find a second hand copy.

If Kulenkampff is unknown to you then he is well worth investigating - there are currently 3 Kulenkampff cds in the Dutton sale at £2.99 each. Unfortunately, the Schumann concerto does not figure.

http://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

this piece was the subject of an excellent essay/performance some years back on a discontinued R3 programme by some one who seems to be completely off the plot with R3 these days .... listened to it in the car driving back from Oxon .... captivating, never knew of the piece until then

[jayne lee wilson]

I played the Capucon/MCO/Harding one at dawn today, all unwell and unsleeping, and - wow! What a lift it gave me. It is a terrific performance, dramatic and impassioned, up-close and deeply personal. You really do hear every-single-thing Capucon does, and the wondrous bar-by-bar ensemble between orchestra conductor and soloist gives it a cohesive intensity. Capucon is closely recorded, but since the orchestra are set closely behind him this only adds to the transparency and projection. Unusual setting - the Jugendstilltheater in Vienna, for a performance that should be on anyone's shortlist...

Really pleased, rfg, that you inspired me to play it, I might buy Skride's now too - ideally coupled, like Wallin/Beerman, with Op.131 and the Violinned Cello Concerto. (Both Wallin & Skride recieved high praise in Gramophone and IRR)...

Capucon makes the point (Gramophone 12/04, review by EG) that the problem with the piece isn't its musical quality, but the difficult writing for the violin itself - also the wideranging moods of a work which he loves deeply. Where on earth is the "weakness" anyway? Nowhere I can hear...

God I feel rough. Might go back to bed. But I'll have some good tunes in my head!

[amateur51]

God I feel rough. Might go back to bed. But I'll have some good tunes in my head!

Very sorry to hear of your health woes, jlw ... but delighted that Messrs Capucon, Harding and Schumann have lifted your mood

Get better soon

[Gordon]

I too hope that you get better soon JLW, music does help sooth!!

Meanwhile I downloaded your recommended Wallin version and, aside from the shortcomings of the piece itself, it is a fine recording [it clips in one place in the R channel 1st movement - bad mark BIS!].

Also the download from iTunes successfully downloaded both concertis but failed to deliver the Fantasie!! Well, they did give me about 40 seconds of playable m4a which converted to a WAV happily but there is silence in the rest of the file - so how come the file plays at all and is largely empty, and reports itself the right length?? Weird, but I have had that before with them. No fix apparently. Haven't the patience to take them on this time although I did get a refund last time.

[richardfinegold]

I too hope that you get better soon JLW, music does help sooth!!

Meanwhile I downloaded your recommended Wallin version and, aside from the shortcomings of the piece itself, it is a fine recording [it clips in one place in the R channel 1st movement - bad mark BIS!].

Also the download from iTunes successfully downloaded both concertis but failed to deliver the Fantasie!! Well, they did give me about 40 seconds of playable m4a which converted to a WAV happily but there is silence in the rest of the file - so how come the file plays at all and is largely empty, and reports itself the right length?? Weird, but I have had that before with them. No fix apparently. Haven't the patience to take them on this time although I did get a refund last time.

Yes, please feel better, jlw. I played the Szering again tonight on my dedicated two channel system. It is a bit harsh in the treble and could use some ambience but otherwise is a fairly detailed Mercury recording. I had read some reviews that praise the Wallin and would like to audition it as a comparison.

[Richard Tarleton]

I gave my Kremer/Muti/Philharmonia LP a spin for the first time in ages yesterday. It certainly has some lovely moments. The sleeve notes go on about its being ungrateful to play for the violinist - but similar comments were made about the Brahms in the 19th century, and Joachim was happy enough to play that. (Alban Gerhardt told us after a performance of the Schumann cello concerto in Swansea that the solo part there lay uncomfortably for the cellist.) Whatever was going through Clara's and Joachim's minds, Eugenie's opposition in 1937 is harder to figure. I like Tovey's 1937 letter to the Times (quoted in the sleeve note) : "Only a morbid pedantry could decide that this Concerto was inferior to other works published by Schumann in 1853 such as the Fantasie for Violin and Orchestra which Joachim and several good violinists of the present day are quixotic enough to play in public".