Sunday 24 April 2011

Concerto evening on Saturday. First, Beethoven's violin concerto (yet again) with Christian Tetzlaff and the Zürich Tonhalle Orchestra under David Zinman. For once, the first movement tempo sounded right: "fast, but not too fast", Beethoven indicated. That is how Tetzlaff played it. The dynamic range of the recording is again wide, which again meant there were pianissimo passages on the violin that I just could not hear at normal listening volume. It's probably also a fault with my elderly ears. Tetzlaff again plays an adaptation of the "Beethoven" cadenzas -- I seem to have heard that drum symphony far too often of late. Tetzlaff's cadenzas in this work make one realise why, from Mendelssohn onwards, most composers preferred to dictate the cadenza rather than leave it to the taste and imagination of the soloist.

The second concerto was, again, the first Shostakovich violin concerto played by Ilian Garnetz at a Queen Elisabeth Competition gala evening in Brussels (2009). Like Elgar's concerto, Shostakovich's first is lucky on record and rarely fails. Garnetz is from Moldova, born in St. Petersburg. Good, firm, accurate, enjoyable playing, with commendable empathy for the music. So yet another fine version -- my 41st recording of this twentieth century classic.

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