BaL 24.04.21 - Stravinsky: Violin concerto in D

[silvestrione]

My experience of hearing a violin concerto in concert has been enough for me to realise that it's the last way I'd want to hear it in a recording. Of course, a lot depends on seating position, hall acoustics and the like, but all too often the solo violin sound in concert can sound too distant with lost detail and it is sometimes the case that the visual impact compensates for the lack of audibility. Others may feel differently, but I am generally glad of the help given to the soloist from the engineers where hearing the solo part is of paramount importance. I would cite the Berg Violin Concerto as well as the Stravinsky (among others) where I prefer a more forwardly recorded violinist.

[Bryn]

My experience of hearing a violin concerto in concert has been enough for me to realise that it's the last way I'd want to hear it in a recording. Of course, a lot depends on seating position, hall acoustics and the like, but all too often the solo violin sound in concert can sound too distant with lost detail and it is sometimes the case that the visual impact compensates for the lack of audibility. Others may feel differently, but I am generally glad of the help given to the soloist from the engineers where hearing the solo part is of paramount importance. I would cite the Berg Violin Concerto as well as the Stravinsky (among others) where I prefer a more forwardly recorded violinist.

Your reference to the Berg puzzles me. Surely the violinist should be heard within the context of Berg's carefully notated haupstimme. I recall the Gramophone review of the Suk/CPO/Ancerl recording praising the attention to such matters on that recording.

[Richard Barrett]

Surely that aspect of modern recordings is much better now than, say, 40 years ago when any soloist was spotlighted and the orchestra became a mere backing?

I don't think so - the Schneiderhan/Ančerl recording is to my ears more naturally balanced than many modern ones.

[cloughie]

Surely that aspect of modern recordings is much better now than, say, 40 years ago when any soloist was spotlighted and the orchestra became a mere backing?

Very possibly but in the 50s and 60s balance was generally very good, with very good sound.

[Quarky]

Fools rush in, but here goes....

Particularly in the first movement, there is an essential good-humoured dialogue between soloist and orchestra, and to that extent they are equal partners. The Mullova recording brought that out briliantly.

Traces of Rite of Spring in the last movement, but of course in a different context.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I'm a bit disappointed by the unnecessary spotlighting of the violin in the recorded balance, as I've mentioned probably too many times with regard to violin concerto recordings in general. Why (rhetorical question alert) can't we hear the kind of balance the audience in a concert would hear, that is to say the kind of balance the composer wrote into the score?

My experience of hearing a violin concerto in concert has been enough for me to realise that it's the last way I'd want to hear it in a recording. Of course, a lot depends on seating position, hall acoustics and the like, but all too often the solo violin sound in concert can sound too distant with lost detail and it is sometimes the case that the visual impact compensates for the lack of audibility. Others may feel differently, but I am generally glad of the help given to the soloist from the engineers where hearing the solo part is of paramount importance. I would cite the Berg Violin Concerto as well as the Stravinsky (among others) where I prefer a more forwardly recorded violinist.

This is indeed a tricky one. In general, I prefer to be closer that the concert hall balance, but as Petrushka says, the visual aspect of the live soloist can indeed compensate for the lack of aural immediacy. I remember choosing the Chung recording of Walton's violin concerto over the Menuhin one, as the latter sounded much too close. Worse still are most Perlman recordings, as that violinist believes the listener should hear what he hears. That seems totally wrong; he should have been restricted to recording for the gimmicky Decca Phase 4 label. That said, Decca balances (other than Phase 4) seem to strike the right balance between soloists and orchestra, and this applies to singers as well as instrumentalists.

[Goon525]

Our esteemed Administrator is spot on. Perlman was a truly great violinist, many of whose recordings disqualified themselves by an absurdly close balance on the soloist. I can live with a little subtle highlighting, but...

[Maclintick]

Our esteemed Administrator is spot on. Perlman was a truly great violinist, many of whose recordings disqualified themselves by an absurdly close balance on the soloist. I can live with a little subtle highlighting, but...

I've been revisiting Perlman/BSO/Ozawa today. In the matter of soloistical highlighting it's not dissimilar to Mullova, or indeed Chung, & has left me with renewed appreciation for the precision & finesse of the BSO under Ozawa. I'm in agreement with RB here in that in all 3 versions I've mentioned I would prefer the soloist to take half a pace backwards in the aural picture. Bryn makes a good point of the importance of observing hauptstimme in the Berg, BTW.

[LHC]

Our esteemed Administrator is spot on. Perlman was a truly great violinist, many of whose recordings disqualified themselves by an absurdly close balance on the soloist. I can live with a little subtle highlighting, but...

There is a Christopher Nupen (I think) film about Ashkenazy and Perlman recording sonatas together which included a section where Ashkenazy asks the engineers if they can rebalance the recording so that the piano isn’t completely drowned out by Perlman’s violin. Despite his complaint, Perlman gets his way, and the piano comes a distant second in the final recording.

[LMcD]

There is a Christopher Nupen (I think) film about Ashkenazy and Perlman recording sonatas together which included a section where Ashkenazy asks the engineers if they can rebalance the recording so that the piano isn’t completely drowned out by Perlman’s violin. Despite his complaint, Perlman gets his way, and the piano comes a distant second in the final recording.

Possibly Nupen's film 'Itzhak Perlman: Virtuoso Violinist', or one of the recently (re)broadcast series on Beethoven fronted by Daniel Barenboim?

[BBMmk2]

I think it’s pity that the Kyung Wha-Chung, LSO, Previn disc, didn’t get anywhere.

[Bryn]

I think it’s pity that the Kyung Wha-Chung, LSO, Previn disc, didn’t get anywhere.

Oh, but it did get somewhere, into the reject pile. It's a recording I occasionally return to with some pleasure but it simply failed to make the short-list in this consideration. There is no point in continuing to go on about it.

[Richard Barrett]

I don't think so - the Schneiderhan/Ančerl recording is to my ears more naturally balanced than many modern ones.

In fact it's my favourite of the ones I've belatedly listened to in the last few days; and the DSCH 10 that follows it is pretty good too I think. On the other hand I did like Mullova, apart from the aforementioned balance issue, and her Bartók 2 is a fine complement to it. I think Perlman's was the first recording of it I heard. While he plays both this and the Berg as well as anyone else, I agree that with him the balance problem is almost bizarrely exaggerated. I'll be listening to Hilary next, which I've avoided so far on account of not being much interested in the Brahms.

edit: I liked it a lot! I was expecting some kind of mad scramble in the first movement after some of the comments made here but I don't think the fast tempo really compromises anything. What I found particularly engaging is the way this performance takes seriously the way that the violin is more often than not sharing responsibility for the musical momentum with one or more members of the orchestra, as I guess you'd expect from someone with HH's lack of divaesque pretentions. The all-important balance is not bad either.

[Bryn]

Listening to the Frang/BFO/Fischer concert performance from Medici tv, I find that they set off at a very fast pace with Frang playing an almost coquettish role in her interactions with the orchestra. The engineering places her a little too far forward for my liking but both Frang's and the other musicians' contributions make this a performance well worth hearing if you have, or initiate, a Medici tv subscription. The final movent is as headlong as the first. The aac audio from the stream has been converted to m4a, copied to a USB memory stick, for playback.

[Barbirollians]

Oh, but it did get somewhere, into the reject pile. It's a recording I occasionally return to with some pleasure but it simply failed to make the short-list in this consideration. There is no point in continuing to go on about it.

I don’t think it was dismissed - it fell into the good things about it but problems with balance etc pile. I am more than happy for BBM to go on about it . I think like it’s original Walton coupling it is outstanding.