Like Beethoven, Brahms,
Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, Elgar --and many others -- Benjamin Britten
wrote only one violin concerto, a youthful work dating from the years
1938-9. The concerto was revised subsequently but never really took
off until the past twenty years or so when it has been "discovered"
by a new generation of violinists and listeners. It is a mournful
work, written in the shadow of the Spanish Civil War. For many
violinists of that generation, Heifetz's advocacy of the concerto by
William Walton was more persuasive. Britten's work's first recording
was not until 1948 (Theo Olof, playing the original version of the
work; interestingly, Olof's compatriot, Simone Lamsma, also played
the original version in 2018 -- off-air recording).
The concerto is highly
virtuosic. I currently have eighteen recordings, all but a handful
dating from the past twenty years or so. The latest comes on a CD
(recorded 2021) with Kerson Leong as the soloist (with the
Philharmonia conducted by Patrick Hahn). I had never heard, or heard
of, Leong before, but am highly impressed by his playing of the
Britten. As well as being virtuosic, the concerto demands a
wide variety of moods and dynamics from the soloist. Leong copes
admirably on all fronts. The recording captures the full range of the
orchestra and the violinist, though perhaps the violin is recorded
just a little too forward. No matter; an excellent performance and
recording of a work that, at last, appears to be taking its place within
the standard repertoire (viz also the first Shostakovich
violin concerto with which Britten's has a lot in common). A shame
Britten wrote only one violin concerto (his Opus 15). He is not a
composer to whom I often relate, but his violin concerto is an
exception.
I thought I knew every
piece of music ever written for the violin, but Max Bruch's In
Memoriam Op 65 for violin and orchestra is an exception: never
heard of it before. It now features on Leong's CD and thus enters my
repertoire of known works. An adagio that falls between two
stools: too short to be a concert item (cf. Saint-Saën's Havanaise).
Too long at just under 15 minutes to be an encore. It is technically
undemanding, and I suspect that some years ago I could have played it
with ease. Leong has no competition and I can make no comparisons,
but he appears to play the piece admirably. Like much of Max Bruch's
enormous output, the music is somewhat bland; workman-like, rather
than inspired.
Max Bruch's main claim
to fame has always been his first violin concerto, in G minor opus
26. This is also on Leong's Alpha CD. One of those works -- like
Beethoven's 5th symphony -- that I always feel I have by now heard
once too often. Leong gives a warm, romantic performance of the
concerto; his violin makes a lovely sound (a sound and style that
made me think of the violinist Nai-Yuan Hu) and I greatly enjoyed his
playing. Yet another modern violinist to be reckoned with. A slight
regret that he did not choose a less hackneyed concerto to add to the
Britten; the Glazunov concerto, or those by Goldmark, or Julius Conus?
