Brahms: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77

Born in Odessa in 1908, David Oistrakh became one of the greatest violin legends of the 20th century. In 1946 Prague was among the first destinations of his post-war foreign tours. From that time on he would repeatedly return to the city as a violinist and conductor.

Owing to his technical mastery and exquisitely warm tone, Oistrakh became an insuperable interpreter of grand Romantic concerti. Serving as a case in point is Brahms’s Concerto in D major, a work of extreme technical difficulty, recorded in Prague with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Antonio Pedrotti.

Yet true mastery is frequently manifested on a seemingly simple Classicist repertoire; the lucid structure and straightforward melodiousness require of the performer stylistic purity as well as balance and culture of tone. These very qualities are characteristic of Oistrakh’s recording of Mozart’s third violin concerto and Beethoven’s Romance, Op. 50, which he made in 1954 with Karel Ancerl conducting the Czech Philharmonic, already as a world-renowned virtuoso.

For the purpose of this release, the legendary recordings have been remastered from the original tapes.

Producer and Audio Restoration Producer: Mark Obert-Thorn

“[De Vito] is a stylist to the backbone; and technical accomplishment is unfailingly put to the service of the music instead of being allowed to become an end in itself.” Gramophone

Sarah Chang has recorded the Brahms Violin Concerto with Kurt Masur and the Dresdner Philharmonie. Two decades after first learning the concerto, and following several years of studying the work with Kurt Masur, she felt the time was finally right to commit to disc one of the summits of a violinist’s recording career. EMI Classics is proud to release this recording, which couples the Brahms with the ever-popular Bruch G minor concerto.

“I’ve been working with Maestro Masur since I was about ten years old,” Chang said recently, “and I’ve gone through just about every concerto with him. He is like my musical godfather. From the time I was about 18, I would ask Maestro Masur every year if we could perform the Brahms concerto together, and every year he turned me down. Finally I stopped asking. And then, about three or four years ago, he pulled me aside and said he thought I was ready, that I could work with him [on it]. … The work requires so much emotional depth, so much stamina and a lot of musical knowledge, not just of your own line but of the orchestration. The greatest joy comes from treating it as a chamber music piece, from involving yourself in the wash of sound.”

“The Bruch G minor is one of my favourite concertos,” Chang continued. “I auditioned for Juilliard with the Bruch when I was about five and a half so it was also one of my first concertos. It is so beautiful; it has an incredibly dramatic side to it, but also the most luscious, glorious melodies that are unapologetically, heartbreakingly romantic.”

The concertos were recorded in two venues in Dresden, the Bruch in the Lucaskirche and the Brahms in the Kulturpalast concert hall. Both venues are “spectacular” but, with church bells from all the Dresden churches ringing at 12 noon every day, including during recording sessions, Sarah said, “I hope we’ll have a disc without church bells!”

Sarah Chang describes the Dresdner Philharmonie as “phenomenal, one of the most hard-working, passionate and really heart-warmingly chamber music-like ensembles. Every single take, every single minute that we worked together, everybody was giving 120% and that is really inspiring.” She reserves special praise for Kurt Masur: “He’s very passionate – and he demands excellence. At the end of the day, he’s there for the music and to deliver the best performance.” Kurt Masur conducted the Dresdner Philharmonie in 1954 and 1957, returning as Principal Conductor from 1967 to 1972. From 1970 to 1996, he held the post of Music Director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the so-called “Brahms orchestra.”

Johannes Brahms met the legendary violinist Joseph Joachim in 1853. Although both were about the same age, Joachim was already famous while Brahms was still unknown and struggling in the shadow of Beethoven’s genius. Twenty five years later, Brahms composed his only violin concerto for his dear friend. It was in D Major, the same key as Beethoven’s only violin concerto and, as he wrote it, Brahms called on Joachim for technical advice. The composer conducted the premiere in Leipzig on New Year’s Day 1879 with the Gewandhaus Orchestra with the work’s dedicatee as the soloist.

Max Bruch also had a close relationship with Joseph Joachim, who advised him on his G minor violin concerto and performed the premiere of its revised version in 1868. Both the Brahms and Bruch concertos have finales in gypsy style, paying tribute to Joachim’s Hungarian roots and both contain features of his playing, such as his grand theatrical manner, expressive legato lines and decorative melodic passagework.

Sarah Chang is recognised as one of today’s most captivating and gifted performers, possessed of astonishing musical insight, technical virtuosity and emotional range. She has recorded exclusively for EMI Classics from the beginning of her career and has produced a discography that includes the violin concertos of Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Dvorák, Paganini No. 1, Prokofiev No. 1, Shostakovich No. 1, Goldmark, Sibelius, Richard Strauss and Vieuxtemps No. 5 as well as Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole, Saint-Saëns’s Havanaise and Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso and chamber music by Dvorák, Tchaikovsky, Franck, Ravel and Saint-Saëns.

“a flawless delivery, deep musical intelligence and barely contained expressive exuberance." (The Irish Times, Feb 2, 2009 on Sarah Chang’s performance of the Brahms violin concerto)

For his latest recording for RCA Red Seal Nikolaj Znaider, one of the most versatile violinists of our time, has combined one of the best loved violin concertos, Brahms’s concerto in D, with the lesser-known Korngold concerto, also in D

Alongside Nikolaj is The Vienna Philharmonic under the baton of one of the greatest conductors of all time, Valery Gergiev.

Vadim Repin’s DG debut with the Wiener Philharmoniker under Riccardo Muti gave the musical world and his many fans exactly what was expected of this first-class violinist: an incomparably refined, technically brilliant and at the same time highly emotional interpretation of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto.

Such a recording creates a high level of expectation for its follow-up, which Repin has met – and even surpassed – with his second DG album in which he performs another milestone of the violin repertoire.

The programme is Brahms; the composer’s beautiful Violin Concerto and the passionate Double Concerto in which Repin is partnered by cellist Truls Mørk. Completing the collaboration is the renowned Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under its chief conductor Riccardo Chailly.

The reason Repin waited to record these crucial pieces of violin repertoire for the first time is simple: he wanted the right partners – the right label, the right orchestra and the right conductor. Now he has them.

With this perfect set-up for the Brahms concertos, music lovers will again have a recording to cherish: an album that sets new technical standards and is at the same time a profound expression of great musicality.