Korngold: Much Ado About Nothing, Op. 11: suite for violin (or cello) & piano (Viel Lärm um nichts)

“Austrian virtuoso Benjamin Schmid has been winning golden plaudits and this terrific live Salzburg Festival performance of Korngold’s Violin Concerto demonstrates why. Not only does he generate a spine tingling rapport with Seiji Ozawa and the Vienna Philharmonic but his playing, brimful of elegance, affectionate warmth and temperament, betokens a very real empathy with this gorgeous score…it’s a genuine “tingle fest” from start to finish…” Andrew Achenbach (The Gramophone)

“Austrian virtuoso Benjamin Schmid has been winning golden plaudits, especially on the continent, and this terrific live Salzburg Festival performance of Korngold's Violin Concerto demonstrates why. Not only does he generate a spine-tingling rapport with Seiji Ozawa and the Vienna Philharmonic but his playing, brimful of elegance, affectionate warmth and temperament, betokens a very real empathy with this gorgeous score.
One readily forgives any tiny slips along the way, given the big-hearted dedication, spontaneity and palpable sense of occasion that leap out of the speakers. The audience were understandably enthralled, too – so much so that their enthusiastic applause at the end of the first movement seems to take Schmid by surprise (he takes a few bars to settle at the start of the slow movement).
Otherwise, it's a genuine 'tingle fest' from start to finish: the opening Moderato nobile is ideally glowing and heartfelt, the slow movement has exactly the right blend of innocence, intimacy and tenderness, while the boisterous finale is imbued with a wicked sense of fun. In all of this Ozawa and the VPO play their full part.
Towards the end of the festival Schmid teamed up with his chamber ensemble in the Mozarteum for the marvellous five-movement Suite for two violins, cello and piano (left hand) that Korngold wrote in 1930 for Paul Wittgenstein. It's been a lucky work in the recording studio, with excellent versions listed above. These splendidly accomplished and watchful newcomers convey the greatest sense of teamwork and joy of new discov- ery but all three groups impressively surmount the technical challenges of Korngold's urgently communicative inspiration and wisely eschew any temptation to wallow in the heaven-sent 'Lied'.
The main offerings frame perhaps rather less distinctive performances of music from MuchAdo About Nothing and Das Wunder der Heliane.
However, the rewards elsewhere are copious.
No major grumbles, either, with the sound on these Austrian Radio tapes – and the price is right, too.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Austrian virtuoso Benjamin Schmid has been winning golden plaudits… and this terrific live Salzburg Festival performance of Korngold's Violin Concerto demonstrates why. Not only does he generate a spine-tingling rapport with Seiji Ozawa and the Vienna Philharmonic but his playing, brimful of elegance, affectionate warmth and temperament, betokens a very real empathy with his gorgeous score. ...Schmid teamed up with his chamber ensemble... for the marvellous five-movement Suite for two violins, cello and piano (left hand) that Korngold wrote in 1930 for Paul Wittgenstein. These splendidly accomplished and watchful newcomers convey the greatest sense of teamwork and joy of new discovery...” Gramophone Magazine, July 2006

“excellent pianist” (BBC Music Magazine)

“Three years ago, CPO released an identical programme… which displayed the songful tone of Dutch violinist Sonja van Beek. But Joseph Lin, in this latest in Naxos's series introducing young competition winners, is better still. His playing throughout is lithe and passionate and if it is not quite as vocal in its sense of line as van Beek, he has a more seductive range of tone colour and an effortlessness to his technical bravura.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2004 *****

“This performance of the Barber, warm and rich with the sound close and immediate, brings out the work's bolder side, allowing moments that aren't too distant from the world of Hollywood music (no disparagement there) and aptly the Korngold emerges as a central work in that genre. There have been subtler readings of Barber's lovely concerto, with the soloist not always helped by the close balance, but it's good to have a sharp distinction drawn between the purposeful lyricism of the first movement, marked Allegro, and the tender lyricism of the heavenly Andante. In the finale Shaham brings out the fun behind the movement's manic energy, with Previn pointing the Waltonian wit.
In the Korngold, Gil Shaham may not have quite the flair and panache of the dedicatee, Jascha Heifetz, in his incomparable reading (reviewed under Korngold), but he's warm and committed. What emerges again and again is how electric the playing of the LSO is under Previn, rich and full as well as committed. The recording helps, clear and immediate.
The suite from Korngold's incidental music to Much ado about nothing, dating from his early precocious period in Vienna, provides a delightful and apt filler, with Previn, as pianist, just as understanding and imaginative an accompanist, and Shaham yearningly warm without sentimentality, clean and precise in attack.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010