I had more or less forgotten about the American violinist, Leila Josefowicz. She was well thought of fifteen or twenty years ago but appears to have faded from my sight. I listened to her recently in two recordings of Shostakovich's A minor violin concerto, both with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sakari Oramo. The January 2006 recording was in a studio; a good recording at a somewhat low level of recorded sound. The second was an off-air recording in July the same year at the Proms in London. The two serve as an excellent summary of the advantages and disadvantages of live versus studio recordings. The studio performance is excellent, though perhaps not completely three star. The live recording has an extra dose of woompf and adrenalin from both soloist and orchestra that moves it into a higher class. The live recording comes off well, but is severely marred by audience coughs and sneezes and, in the long cadenza (that Josefowicz plays wonderfully) by the constant sound of a foot tapping on the platform; presumably Josefowicz's tiny foot, since it doesn't sound like Oramo's. In both recordings, I like the players' tempo for the brooding moderato opening movement; Josefowicz and Oramo take 11 minutes, whereas Alina Ibragimova in a recently admired recording takes 12.5 minutes. As every schoolboy knows, moderatos need to be kept moving.
Josefowicz appears to have faded from view (at least, from my view). My impression is that she had joined the band of would-be pop violinists who are also entertainment personalities attracting higher earnings. Pop and classical do not really mix, and those trying to bridge the two worlds end up being great successes in neither. For violinists, one thinks of Nigel Kennedy, Gilles Apap, Nemanja Radulovic, and Pavel Sporcl; all excellent violinists who aspired to be cross-over artists.
2 comments:
Josefowicz has a terrific recording of the Tchaikovsky concerto done many, many years ago. Her Zigeunerweisen recording is also phenomenal. She took to promoting some contemporary works which are really not to my liking and not popular with the general public. I think that attempt was a big flop.
Thanks for the comment. Musicians get Brownie points from academic critics for playing obscure contemporary works, but you rarely see the same work performed again and there is no evidence that playing them contributes to a successful artist. Josefowicz should have used her considerable violin talents in better repertoire. If you want to avoid only playing the few standard works, there are piles of interesting works from the 19th century that rarely see the light of day.
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