Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35

Arthur Grumiaux was a prince among violinists and recorded extensively for Philips/Decca. Many of his recordings – some of them released internationally for the first time on CD – have appeared on an extensive series on the Eloquence label. Here is another – a rare 1956 performance of the Tchaikovsky concerto coupled with his highly-praised traversals of the Stravinsky and Berg concertos.

[Berg/Stravinsky]: "Grumiaux's pure style brings rare magic to both these works. To the Berg he brings above all tenderness and sweetness; to the Stravinsky he brings above all strength and dynamism. The one virtuoso, remaining his individual self all the time, effortlessly encompasses the utterly different demands of each work." Gramophone

Ruggiero Ricci is in his element in these virtuoso concertos and showpieces, with both, the Tchaikovsky Concerto (with Sargent) and Scherzo and the Sibelius Violin Concerto being released internationally on CD for the first time. The perceptive booklet notes by Tully Potter include a biography of Ricci and (sometimes wry!) comments by the violinist himself on the recordings, and some fascinating detail on the first movement cadenza of the Khachaturian. All the recordings were made in a five-year period from 1956 (Khachaturian) to 1961 (Tchaikovsky).

In the May of 1973 Giulini's Berlin programme was built around Slav composers. It opened with the Prelude to Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina, followed by the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Korean violinist Kyung-Wha Chung, born in 1948, who was making her début with the Berlin Philharmonic. The concert ended with the Symphony No.7 by Dvor?ák. As Klaus Geitel put it in Die Welt on 12 May, the colours were not burnished until they resembled picture postcards: "Giulini's honesty and seriousness invests his interpretations with a symphonic gravity that totally rejects flirting with effects, tempting though they are. This imparted a calm serenity and lustrous beauty to the Prelude to Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina." In Dvor?ák's Seventh Symphony Giulini had once again displayed the energy that powerfully synthesised the form and created a firm foundation for the drive and inspiration of his interpretations. This was due to his artistic vehemence which, "rather than construing completeness from small components appears to strike out in the opposite direction. In the end the overall view of the work reveals the significance of the details." Even in the '70s Dvor?ák's Seventh was no standard item in our programmes, being overshadowed by the popular Ninth (From the New World ) and the familiar Eighth. Yet the work substantially extends the image of the Czech composer. As Gottfried Eberle put it in the Tagesspiegel on 12 May, it was not just his preoccupation with folklore or the example of Brahms; there were also obvious traces of Wagner's harmonies and Bruckner's symphonic style, particularly in the Scherzo and Finale. This resulted in a problem of form and structure for which Giulini had found a thrilling solution by letting the natural impetus of the music swing freely yet never allowing the symphonic texture to relax for a moment. Eberle's colleague Wolfgang Schimmel stated in Der Abend that the Berlin Philharmonic appeared to enjoy working with Giulini and that their playing was unrivalled. From the booklet note by Helge Grünewald

It is the existence of surviving broadcast acetate recordings of many of Barbirolli’s broadcasts with the Philharmonic that have enabled us to form a more complete picture of his work and genius (not too strong a word) as a conductor during this period, recordings which in many instances are being made available for the first time publicly. From a period of almost three-quarters of a century, we are able to study and evaluate Barbirolli’s art in a manner that was unavailable to earlier generations of music-lovers. The evaluation produces extraordinary results.

The first of our two CDs in this set opens with Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, in which the soloist is Mishel Piastro. The performance comes from March, 1942, and will be a revelation for many listeners. Piastro is hardly known at all these days, but he was the leader of the Philharmonic under Toscanini and, of course, under Barbirolli. He was, as we may hear, an absolutely astounding violinist – it is rumoured that someone remarked to Fritz Kreisler that ‘Piastro is so gifted but he’s lazy and doesn’t practise’, to which Kreisler replied, ‘Thank God!’ The second CD in this set of performances opens with the world premiere performance of the Piano Concerto by Mischa Portnoff. This Concerto is, as can readily be heard, a dazzlingly effective work, with extremely virtuosic writing for the soloist, composed in a style perhaps best described as a mixture of the then contemporary music of Prokofiev and Shostakovich rather than, say, that of Stravinsky. The soloist was the Lithuanian-born but American naturalised pianist Nadia Reisenberg (1904-83), whose family settled in New York after the Russian Revolution.

The works in this set receive brilliant – not to say breathtaking – performances from the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York, the members of which were clearly relishing the opportunity to display their virtuosity under a conductor who by that time had won over the hearts and minds of every musician taking part.