BaL 30.10.21 - Elgar: Violin Concerto in B minor

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

cdcfp4632 but also available on a double cfp with the violin sonata and other Elgar chamber music for arong £6 in p&p

The Hugh Bean recording was also part of the 30 CD EMI box set (also nla).

[richardfinegold]

I wasn’t taken with this performance either . Nigel K and Handley for me in this. A work I rate much higher than the cello concerto . Indeed I wonder if it isn’t the very greatest violin concerto of them all…?

This is another VC in the canon that I just can’t get on with (the other is the Bartok). I’ve bought a few recordings based on reviews, the first Nigel and Gil Shaham, which isn’t on the list, and it just doesn’t do much for me. Ranking this over the Cello Concerto just leaves me baffled, let alone over Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, etc. I do like some of the shorter Elgar Violin pieces.

[Bryn]

This is another VC in the canon that I just can’t get on with (the other is the Bartok). . . .

Which of the Bartok violin concertos, or is it both?

[cloughie]

Yes you’re right . Elgar’s work does not lend itself to bleeding chunks . The Cello concerto , though a wonderful work , is overplayed and over -extracted on radio . The violin concerto is comparatively underplayed

An example of Elgar bleeding chunks this morning’s EC - movt 2 of Sym 1 - this should never be separated from mvt 3 again!

[Petrushka]

This is another VC in the canon that I just can’t get on with (the other is the Bartok). I’ve bought a few recordings based on reviews, the first Nigel and Gil Shaham, which isn’t on the list, and it just doesn’t do much for me. Ranking this over the Cello Concerto just leaves me baffled, let alone over Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, etc. I do like some of the shorter Elgar Violin pieces.

It took me a long time and many listens before the Elgar Violin Concerto 'clicked' in my head and once it did I couldn't have enough of it. I bought the Perlman/Chicago SO/Barenboim on LP in 1982 and played it to death. I urge you to keep trying because when it finally 'clicked' in my head it was a hugely satisfying moment and worth all the effort. Some works don't easily unlock their secrets.

I've seen both Perlman and Kennedy perform the concerto twice and once saw the legendary leader of the Halle Orchestra, Martin Milner, perform it with Loughran.

[Bryn]

https://www.rpo.co.uk/whats-on/eventdetail/1594/121/vasily-petrenko-conducts-elgar-s-violin-concerto

[cloughie]

This is another VC in the canon that I just can’t get on with (the other is the Bartok). I’ve bought a few recordings based on reviews, the first Nigel and Gil Shaham, which isn’t on the list, and it just doesn’t do much for me. Ranking this over the Cello Concerto just leaves me baffled, let alone over Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, etc. I do like some of the shorter Elgar Violin pieces.

Perhaps rfg you are not bombarded with the chunks your side of the pond - anyway it wouldn’t good for as all to have uniform tastes!

[Keraulophone]

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Having had to bear Menuhin’s excruciating intonation in this masterpiece at the Brighton Festival, Zuckerman’s 1976 release came as quite a revelation. It remained my yardstick until Kennedy/Handley in 1984, not surpassed IMO by his remake with Rattle. Ehnes/Davis has impressed more recently, but one I like to return to that will never be a front runner is Ida Haendel’s expansive (55 min) 1977 recording with Boult for EMI at Abbey Road: lingering but lovely; reissued on Testament, including the Bach Chaconne (from 1995, also worth hearing).

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

An example of Elgar bleeding chunks this morning’s EC - movt 2 of Sym 1 - this should never be separated from mvt 3 again!

Just how can they stoop to this?

[Wolfram]

A work I rate much higher than the cello concerto . Indeed I wonder if it isn’t the very greatest violin concerto of them all…?

Working my way this week through my current 9 versions I had exactly the same thought.

[mikealdren]

It took me a long time and many listens before the Elgar Violin Concerto 'clicked' in my head and once it did I couldn't have enough of it. I bought the Perlman/Chicago SO/Barenboim on LP in 1982 and played it to death. I urge you to keep trying because when it finally 'clicked' in my head it was a hugely satisfying moment and worth all the effort. Some works don't easily unlock their secrets.

I've seen both Perlman and Kennedy perform the concerto twice and once saw the legendary leader of the Halle Orchestra, Martin Milner, perform it with Loughran.

It was the Heifetz version that convinced me. I was at the Milner concert too, about 1973? I have the programme at home, I'll check when I get back at the weekend. Milner was amazing and very Heifetz like in his interpretation, he was such a fine player. I saw Kennedy play it too, very different and very good as well, much more emotional. I find the Perlman CD disappointing but his BBC broadcast version was much better.

[richardfinegold]

Which of the Bartok violin concertos, or is it both?

Is the "First" which was unpublished, part of the canon? Does it ever get played in Concert? I just thought it gets hauled out as a discmate for the "Second". At any rate, I don't care for either of them, and since Bartok was and remains a seminal Composer for me when I became a Music Enthusiast, my dislike of the "Second" continues to baffle me, since other Bartokians have taken to it.
Elgar's Music in general is less essential to me. The Cello Concerto, the Enigma Variations, the Good Old Pomp and Circumstance, and the rest I can do without. We all have our blind spots

[Bryn]

Is the "First" which was unpublished, part of the canon? Does it ever get played in Concert? I just thought it gets hauled out as a discmate for the "Second". At any rate, I don't care for either of them, and since Bartok was and remains a seminal Composer for me when I became a Music Enthusiast, my dislike of the "Second" continues to baffle me, since other Bartokians have taken to it.
Elgar's Music in general is less essential to me. The Cello Concerto, the Enigma Variations, the Good Old Pomp and Circumstance, and the rest I can do without. We all have our blind spots

[Edgy 2]

I wasn’t taken with this performance either . Nigel K and Handley for me in this. A work I rate much higher than the cello concerto . Indeed I wonder if it isn’t the very greatest violin concerto of them all…?

I think so, in a previous life on this forum I said as much and one or two members disagreed.
As well as all the stellar names already mentioned I wholeheartedly recommend Dong-Suk Kang on Naxos, it's a terrific recording.
Bet it doesn't win though

[gurnemanz]

I did already own a good recording with Kyung Wha Chung and Solti but I only felt I had got inside this work when I experienced it with the focus and immediacy of a live performance, which was also Nicola Benedetti's first performance - with the Bath Phil in Bath a few years ago. Having not listened to the last BaL I shall be curious to see what transpires this time.