BaL 30.10.21 - Elgar: Violin Concerto in B minor

[Barbirollians]

I'm the other way round. Isn't the VC rather overlong, and insufficiently varied?

That’s fighting talk !

Only in a bad performance - all three movements are very different to my ears.

[smittims]

I'd stopped listening to the Cello Concerto because it was so often broadcast. I just didn't want to hear it, especially in the increasingly slow and 'soulful' performances it was getting, so it was a revelation to hear the 1928 Harrison/Elgar recording in its 'accidental stereo ' revival. So no, it's not a note too long, though it can seem so in some performances! I think understatement is the key: I liked Paul Tortelier's comment in a masterclass once, that in this work Elgar was being 'British'. Maybe it took a romantic Frenchman to see that.

[DoctorT]

Resurrecting this enjoyable thread to ask if anyone has listened to Vilde Frang’s new recording with Robin Ticciati and the Deutches Symphonie-Orchestre Berlin? Gets a very positive review by Andrew Clements in the Guardian. I listened to it this evening with a great deal of pleasure

[gradus]

Resurrecting this enjoyable thread to ask if anyone has listened to Vilde Frang’s new recording with Robin Ticciati and the Deutches Symphonies-Orchestre Berlin? Get’s a very positive review by Andrew Clemente in the Guardian. I listened to it this evening with a great deal of pleasure

She played it at Snape recently with the LSO and Pappano, unfortunately I couldn't get a ticket, all sold out.

[Barbirollians]

I have ordered it - I saw her play it with CBSO and MGT . I thought it was outstanding and am minded to agree with the Guardian reviewer if the recording is at the same level that it is the best since Nigel Kennedy/Handley.

[gradus]

I heard the excerpt (2nd movt) played this morning by Georgia Mann and Ms Frang sounded really at home with the piece, up there with Zukerman, Menuhin, Kennedy and others.

[akiralx]

Yes, it is an excellent version, superbly played and powerfully accompanied - excellent recording too.

For me it doesn't quite surpass Kennedy I as a solo performance, which seems to have a unique atmosphere (rather than purely as violin playing, in which Ms Frang is phenomenal, and fully inside the Elgarian idiom) but it must be one of the finest made in recent years, particularly in terms of orchestral playing and recording quality.