Godard - Violin Concertos - Naxos: 8570554 - CD or download

Listen on Presto Music. Free thirty day trial. Find out more.

Acceptable background listening, but not really much more. — BBC Music Magazine, April 2008, 3 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 28th Jan 2008
Catalogue No: 8570554
Label: Naxos
Series: 19th Century Violinist Composers
Length: 65 minutes

Presto Recording of the Week

4th August 2008
Gramophone Magazine

April 2008

Editor's Choice

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Godard, B: Concerto No. 2 for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 131

Work length25:03

$6.00

$7.75

Chloë Hanslip (violin)
Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Košice
Kirk Trevor
Recorded: 1-5 June 2007
Recording Venue: The House of Arts, Kosice, Slovakia

I. Allegro moderato

Track length10:46

$3.00

$3.85

II. Adagio quasi andante

Track length7:47

$2.00

$2.60

III. Allegro non troppo

Track length6:30

$1.00

$1.30

Godard, B: Canzonetta (Concerto romantique for violin Op. 35)

Work length23:29

$5.00

$6.50

Chloë Hanslip (violin)
Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Košice
Kirk Trevor
Recorded: 1-5 June 2007
Recording Venue: The House of Arts, Kosice, Slovakia

I. Allegro moderato

Track length6:47

$1.00

$1.30

II. Adagio non troppo

Track length7:49

$2.00

$2.60

III. Canzonetta: Allegretto moderato

Track length3:41

$1.00

$1.30

IV. Allegro molto

Track length5:12

$1.00

$1.30

Godard, B: Scenes poetiques, Op. 46

Work length17:23

$4.00

$5.20

Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Košice
Kirk Trevor
Recorded: 1-5 June 2007
Recording Venue: The House of Arts, Kosice, Slovakia

No. 1. Dans les bois

Track length5:47

$1.00

$1.30

No. 2. Dans les champs

Track length3:01

$1.00

$1.30

No. 3. Sur la montagne

Track length4:41

$1.00

$1.30

No. 4. Au village

Track length3:54

$1.00

$1.30

About
Reviews
Explore

About

Recording of the Week, Chloë Hanslip and the unfamiliar

4th August 2008

The young British violinist ventures off the beaten track with concertos by John Adams and John Corigliano, and a recital of virtuoso showpieces by Antonio Bazzini, best known for his fiendish ‘Dance of the Goblins’.

Reviews

April 2008

Acceptable background listening, but not really much more.

2010

Benjamin Godard (1849-95) was a prolific, fluent composer in many genres, but little of his output is familiar today. A string-player (he'd been a pupil of Henri Vieuxtemps), he writes for the violin with great panache, and Chloë Hanslip is in her element, making the most of the showy passagework, enjoying finding the right tone of voice for the different styles of melody – elegiac, sensuous or graceful – and attacking with passion the dramatic recitatives that join the movements of the Concerto romantique. The orchestral writing in both concertos is full of colour, if occasionally rather brash, and is performed here with considerable dash and spirit. There are some delightful solo contributions from oboe, clarinet and viola, in dialogue with the violin, during the little Canzonetta that separates the slow movement and finale of the Concerto romantique. Neither concerto comes near to rivalling Bruch or Tchaikovsky, but Godard is a skilful composer; it's music that's formally satisfying, consistently entertaining and sometimes memorable and touching. Hanslip, who's to be congratulated for taking on such unfamiliar repertoire, seizes on these high-spots – the second theme in Op 131's first movement, the moment in Op 35's sombre Adagio when the first turn to the major is made – and finds just the right colour to emphasise Godard's happy thought.
The Scènes poétiques are really salon music transposed to the concert hall. Kirk Trevor and the orchestra relish the imaginative instrumental colouring, though the performance sounds a little like music learnt in the studio, rather than familiar from many concert outings.

It's to Hanslip's credit that… she is unafraid to risk the unfamiliar. She makes a triumphant success of this concerto, not least because her playing is as forceful and muscular as it is assured, and one hears in every entry how well thought-through are her approach and her grasp of the work's subtle musical nuance.

Hanslip…makes a good advocate of these pieces… Just what the music needs. And all her solo sprints are exhilarating. Glissando dashes, double, triple and quadruple stopping – nothing gives her pause.

Godard - Violin Concertos

CD

Downloads

Contents

Recording of the Week, Chloë Hanslip and the unfamiliar

Download queue