Alfredo Campoli: The Bel Canto Violin - Volume 5 - Eloquence: ELQ4825143 - 2 CDs

Campoli’s cantabile eloquence and portamento-espressivo, with deeply committed support from Boult and the LPO in Elgar’s Concerto, and from the composer in Bliss’s Concerto. — BBC Music Magazine, August 2018, 4 out of 5 stars

Release Date: 26th Jan 2018
Catalogue No: ELQ4825143
Label: Eloquence
Series: The Art of Alfredo Campoli
Length: 1 hour 53 minutes

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Elgar: Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61

Work length45:46

Alfredo Campoli (violin)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Sir Adrian Boult
Recorded: 1954-10-29
Recording Venue: Kingsway Hall, London

1. Allegro

Track length16:42

2. Andante

Track length11:11

3. Allegro molto

Track length17:53

Bruch: Scottish Fantasy, Op. 46

Work length24:12

Alfredo Campoli (violin)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Sir Adrian Boult
Recorded: 1958-05
Recording Venue: Kingsway Hall, London

1. Adagio cantabile

Track length6:52

2. Scherzo - Allegro; Adagio

Track length4:26

3. Andante sostenuto

Track length6:13

4. Finale (Allegro guerriero)

Track length6:41

Bliss: Violin Concerto, F. 111

Work length37:35

Alfredo Campoli (violin)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Arthur Bliss
Recorded: 1955-11-11
Recording Venue: Kingsway Hall, London

I. Allegro ma non troppo

Track length14:24

2. Scherzo: Vivo

Track length6:45

III. Introduzione. Allegro deciso in modo zingara

Track length16:26

Bliss: Theme and Cadenza for violin

Work length6:23

Alfredo Campoli (violin)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Arthur Bliss
Recorded: 1955-11-11
Recording Venue: Kingsway Hall, London

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One of the most significant violinists in gramophone history, Alfredo Campoli enjoyed tremendous success in the 1930s as a purveyor of light music, both in concerts with his own salon orchestra and on Decca. A series of six 2CD reissues from Eloquence focuses on the violinist’s postwar reinvention of himself as ‘Campoli’, the classical soloist. Edward Elgar dedicated his Violin Concerto to Fritz Kreisler, and Campoli was the outstanding inheritor of Kreisler’s mantle as a violinist of unchallenged technique and a popular touch that endeared him to audiences of all backgrounds. His October 1954 recording of the concerto is lent further distinction by the support of that supreme Elgarian, Sir Adrian Boult, who also accompanies him in a May 1958 account of the Scottish Fantasia of Max Bruch.

Despite his name and his Roman heritage, Campoli was a Londoner through and through who spoke with a Balham accent. Something of his dry humour and outgoing personality can be heard reflected in the 1955 Violin Concerto written for him by Sir Arthur Bliss, who had become Master of the Queen’s Music two years earlier. Having worked closely on the solo part together, composer and soloist made this recording together within weeks of its premiere. The result has an unrivalled authority, as fellow composer Humphrey Searle recognized in The Gramophone Record Review of June 1956: ‘Campoli copes with the very difficult solo part as if it were child’s play’. The concerto is coupled, as it was on the original Decca LP, with the more Romantically yearning Theme and Cadenza which Bliss extracted from the incidental music he had written in 1946 for a radio play concerning a young composer who writes a concerto for his wife as a wedding gift.

All the recordings in this series of ‘Alfredo Campoli: The Bel Canto Violin’ have been given new remasterings from original Decca sources. Invaluable context on both artist and repertoire is provided by new booklet essays from Campoli’s biographer David Tunley. ‘Campoli and Boult offer an intense, vigorous, often deeply probing interpretation.’ High Fidelity, June 1957 (Elgar) ‘Campoli has successfully renovated this imposing Edwardian piece without destroying its essential contours; he brings new life to it without seeking to stamp out the old… He is well supported by the orchestra, and safe in the hands of Boult.’ Gramophone, April 1955 (Elgar)

Reviews

August 2018

Campoli’s cantabile eloquence and portamento-espressivo, with deeply committed support from Boult and the LPO in Elgar’s Concerto, and from the composer in Bliss’s Concerto.

Videos

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Alfredo Campoli: The Bel Canto Violin - Volume 5

2 CDs

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