BaL 14.01.12 - Elgar: Violin Concerto

[Petrushka]

...and Martin Milner too with the Hallé years ago.

Yes! I heard MM play it with the Halle under James Loughran in Derby of all places in 1975 but I was still struggling with the piece in those days. I was also present at the Perlman/Rozhdestvensky Prom in 1981 by which time it was beginning to 'click'. I bought the Perlman/Barenboim LP in 1982 and have been in love with it ever since and now have several versions on my shelves (including both of Nige's) but Perlman does it for me.

[LeMartinPecheur]

If I could have only one recording, it would be the Albert Sammons/New Queen's Hall Orchestra/Sir Henry Wood performance - it was the first performance that I really got to know and I recall the frisson that went through the record-collecting world when EMI released it after A C Griffiths (I think) had worked his magic on it for the EMI retrospect series on LP

This was my first version c1972, bought because I had little money as a student and it was far cheaper than the Menuhin/ Boult. But as I was delighted to discover, it's anything but a second-best! Oddly enough, never have acquired that Menuhin/ Boult even though I've picked up a few others since: Chung/ Solti, Zukerman/ Barenboim, Menuhin/ Elgar, Kennedy/ Handley.

[Barbirollians]

Haendel/Rattle is superb and comes with a stupendous account of the Sibelius too.

[BBMmk2]

Haendel/Rattle is superb and comes with a stupendous account of the Sibelius too.

Was that recorded in Rattle's early days with CBSO?

[Bryn]

Was that recorded in Rattle's early days with CBSO?

Conducted by Simon Rattle with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra . Track Listing Jean Sibelius Violin Concerto in B minor, Op.61. Recorded 7th September 1993, Royal Albert Hall, London. 1. I Allegro moderato (16.02) 2. II Adagio di molto (9.19) 2. III Allegro, ma non tanto (7.37) Edward Elgar Violin Concerto in B minor, Op.61. Recorded 22nd February 1984, Royal Festival Hall, London. 4. I- Allegro (17.03) 5. II-Andante (11.23) 6. III- Allegri molto (18.00) Total running time 79.40

[from amazon.co.uk]

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It took me a long, long time to get into the Elgar VC ...

I can remember exactly when I "got into... this work. As a teenager in the 1960s, I was collecting Elgar recordings at a time when EMI were doing sterling service in bringing out recordings of hitherto unrecorded works. Having acquired most of the better know works, the next step was to buy the Violin Concerto. But which version.
The staff at Avgarde Gallery in Manchester (Dennis Baxter and John Mayall) allowed me to listen to the slow movement in both EMI Menuhin versions, but there seemed little to choose between them, so I opted for the safety of the then new version. Since then, I have acquired Sammons, Menuhin/Elgar, Chung, Kennedy/Handley, Zukermann, Bean and Little. If I tend to avoid the Kyung Wha Chung performance, it is because I'm not too impressed by Solti's orchestral direction on this occasion, even though I greatly admire much of his work.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Perlman gives a fine performance, but I generally avvoid his recordings, simply because the violinist always insists on close-miking his violin. We hear what he hears in the concert hall, rather than what the audience hears.

[Barbirollians]

It is a rather unEnglish performance but in many ways I really like that - Perlman treats it as a great romantic concerto in the Brahms class and I imagine that is why it won prizes abroad . Forgot the Chung I am rather fond of that one too !

[Chris Newman]

I was surprised to see how many versions I have collected over the years:

Ida Haendel, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult
Hugh Bean, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Charles Groves
Alfredo Campoli, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult
Jascha Heifetz, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Malcolm Sargent
Albert Sammons, New Queen's Hall Orchestra, Sir Henry Wood
Nigel Kennedy, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Vernon Handley
Yehudi Menuhin, London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Edward Elgar


I first heard it live with Alfredo Campoli and the Brighton Philharmonic under Herbert Menges at the Dome in Brighton. Not long after I heard him again at Dorking Halls with Norman del Mar and the LPO and knew by then it was a magnificent work. I heard Menuhin once with Boult at a concert to raise funds for the EE Birthplace and sadly his intonation was very hit and miss by then. Ida Haendel played it with Groves at one of my first Proms. I heard Hugh Bean play the work twice. I did much love Nige at the Proms about three years ago. I think that Bean, Campoli and Haendel are my favourite recordings. I have heard great things of Ehnes but there are limited hours for hearing everything that I would like to.

"Originally posted by JFLL"
Yes, I remember my father claiming (probably tongue-in-cheek) that he was really named Alf Camp and used to play in a cafe in Birmingham.

Yes, poor old "Alf" was initially interned as an alien (Italian, of course) when the 2nd World War broke out and used his time inside practicing and learning the core concerto repertoire. He went inside as a dance and jazz band leeader and came out as a virtuoso violinist. Soon however he became a stalwart of troop entertainmant with ENSA. He was the first British violinist to be allowed to play in the USSR after the war. Alfredo Campoli (it was his real name) was the proud owner of two Stradivarius violins, the Baillot-Pommerau of 1694 and the Dragonetti of 1700.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Wot! No Zukerman?

No CD, sadly, but it's available as a download.

[makropulos]

Chris: I very much agree about Campoli's playing in general, and the Elgar with Boult in particular. It's certainly one of my favourite recordings of the work. The ultra-slow Haendel/Boult is another.

As for more recent performances, I don't know if anyone's mentioned Zehetmair/Elder yet. I find that extremely persuasive (especially in the third movement).

[amateur51]

I did much love Nige at the Proms about three years ago. I think that Bean, Campoli and Haendel are my favourite recordings. I have heard great things of Ehnes but there are limited hours for hearing everything that I would like to.

A very informative post re your taste, Chris. I do wish the BBC could make that Nige Proms performance available as a DVD/CD release.

Your point about the time available for hearing recorded strikes me as another perfect task for BAL to tackle - let's be hearing something extraordinary I'm hoping that this BAL will bring to my attention a performance (possibly a long-available one or a brand new one) that seizes me by the lapels & demands attention just like the Albert Sammonds did all those years ago

However just as great a service will have been done if I hear a few performances that I've never heard before and which, on the evidence of what I hear on BAL, I never want to hear again.

Who else remembers the BAL about Beethoven's Emperor concerto donkey's years ago when dear old Joseph Cooper set the cat amongst the hornets' nest with his final choice of Hanae Nakajima on the Windmill label? (I think) :

[PJPJ]

Chris: I very much agree about Campoli's playing in general, and the Elgar with Boult in particular. It's certainly one of my favourite recordings of the work. The ultra-slow Haendel/Boult is another.

....

I agree about both. Of more modern recordings, I think Sir Colin Davis and the Dresdners produce the most satisfactory orchestra contribution - they get the ebb and flow of Elgar's writing to a tee. Unfortunately Znaider is balanced very close - would that this recording was re-mixed and issued as an SACD. Ehnes, I feel, is excellent, too. Zehemair I've heard just the once, and it sounded rather wiry. Shaham plays beautifully as always, but the end result misses some of that Elgarian breathing.

[Barbirollians]

I do wish Znaider had recorded it after his year of playing the piece but no doubt commercial considerations required otherwise . Good as it is he sounded so much more at one with the work when he played it in manchester in october 2010 with the Halle and Elder .

Zukerman/Barenboim has many good things in it but it is just a bit too moulded for me. Haendel is much better live with Rattle than with Boult IMO.

[visualnickmos]

It took me a long time to fully "get" Elgar's VC - despite me having heard the (then unkown to me as a teenager) great Ralph Holmes performing it at a concert the location of which I cannot remember! But I now adore this as one of the really monumental VCs of its century. Love the Kennedy/Handley, for example.

Elgar in his VC is at his most truthful self - in fact he would have fitted in (forgive my awkward terminolgy) so superbly into mid-to-late 20th century music. I listen to his work often, and - to me at least he sounds - so modern, contemporary; listen particularly to his shorter pieces for violin and piano. One could be forgiven for guessing they are from the pen of Ravel, Debussy, even Bartok.... Basically what I think, is that Elgar was not the Victorian foot-stamping, patriotic empire-loving glorifier of the Bristish Lion, that he is so often unfairly portrayed as. I really do feel he was a very modern composer.

Maybe I'm just talking gibberish to those on here who are musicologists, or experienced in the field through their vocations; I am not involved in the profession of music at all. I got Grade 4 clarinet! I paint, but I just love music, and all that surrounds it.