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Beethoven Violin Concerto

George J

George J

Herefordshire member
Huberman with the VPO under Szell. HMV recording from 1934.

Is this the best ever recording of this much played concerto? The performance of course, though no apology need be made for this 85 year old recording even by the best modern standards.


I think so though I do also admire Oistach.

George
 
Youtube is a thing of beauty!

It came up with this recording that I did not existed! I would rather listen than read a review! I might be biased this way or that, but so are reviewers! And one never knows if one agrees till one has listened for real ...


Issued in this transfer on Naxos. A must buy. Again my other favourite in this Tchaikowsky Concerto is Oistach.

I love that he simply plays the music as if it runs round in his blood stream rather than the dryness of Heifetz for example, who as Elgar noted, could not cry inside and [that] it shows. Elgar did not approve of Heifetz' reading of his Violin Concerto! He preferred the great English violinist Albert Sammons.

ATB from George
 
That is simply insane! I have this recording as presented on a budget CD release, and mighty fine it is.

I listened to my budget CD of the Tchaikowsky [Dresden Orchestra on mono DG] and decided I preferred Oistach to Huberman because the performances have tremendous parallels, the DG recording far beats the crumbling surface noise of the Naxos transfer. I am glad to have heard the Huberman one, though.

ATB from George
 
I also place the Oistrakh/Cluytens recording at the top of the heap, but I also really like the Milstein/Steinberg. Tetzlaff/Zinman would probably be my third choice.
That Oistrakh box set should be in everyone's collection...

Brian
 
Perhaps none of the people involved in these recordings were experts in Nuclear Fusion?

ATB from George
 
George J said:
Huberman with the VPO under Szell. HMV recording from 1934.

Is this the best ever recording of this much played concerto? The performance of course, though no apology need be made for this 85 year old recording even by the best modern standards.



George
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Probably, the entrance of the violin in the first movement is unforgettable. Having said that, I enjoy Zehetmair even more, but that's just me.

 
Here is Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 22 in E flat, K 482 played on a 1935 EMI recording from 1935. It is still my favourite recording of the music. There is a wonderful freedom and style to it. Neither romanticised, or stifled by the coming HIP style that would appear a decade or so later. The orchestra is absolutely first rate as well.


Best wishes from George
 
George J said:
Here is Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 22 in E flat, K 482 played on a 1935 EMI recording from 1935. It is still my favourite recording of the music. There is a wonderful freedom and style to it. Neither romanticised, or stifled by the coming HIP style that would appear a decade or so later. The orchestra is absolutely first rate as well.


Best wishes from George
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If you like Edwin Fischer then I wonder if you wouldn't also like Zoltan Kocsis. Fischer and Kocsis were both birds of a feather: daemonic drive forward.
 
I was listening to the Heifetz/Toscanini recording of the Beethoven a couple of days ago. I've always admired his playing but on this I think it it too driven. The playing is immaculate and the technical challenges evaporate, but that is not enough. But in the Brahms I don't have a problem. In fact it's ravishing playing. I have a copy of the Elgar with Sargent conducting but never played it as I assumed I wouldn't like it. The comment that Heifetz can't cry inside is interesting. But he can sing. Just listen to the slow movement of the Prokofiev G minor concerto.
Last night I played the Christian Ferras recording of the Beethoven with Karajan conducting. I really enjoyed that.
I can remember back in 1980 going to a friends house and we listened to a radio broadcast of Anne Sophie Mutter (who was very young) playing the Beethoven with Karajan. For me at the time, that is how I wanted to hear it played.
 
I know it's sacrilege but please direct me to the best Beethoven's violin concerto recording because i have never heard any violin concerto from him that i like!
 
philiphifi said:
I know it's sacrilege but please direct me to the best Beethoven's violin concerto recording because i have never heard any violin concerto from him that i like!
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Any of the recordings cited so far "ought" to be enough to bring enjoyment of Beethoven's Violin Concerto. If none from this selection can draw you into the music, it is likely in my view that you simply do not like the music itself. That is fine. Most people have favourites and also pieces that they do not get on with. One may adore one piece by a great composer and yet have the opposite reaction to another piece from the same composer.

It is certainly not a sacrilege to have favourite music and also music that you would prefer to avoid.

For myself, I tend to dislike most music from the post-Beethoven era, but with notable exceptions such as quite a lot of Brahms [though not all], Sibelius, and Walton among other individual pieces from composers I generally get on with less well. My favourite composers are JS Bach and Haydn. Most people would prefer Mozart to Haydn, and indeed they might well be right if comparing operas between the two! But Haydn's greatest symphonies will bare study alongside any and not be found inferior!

Best wishes from George
 
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Thanks George. You are correct about my taste with the Beethoven's string music. I love his piano sonatas, like/admire his piano concertos a lot but have no affinity for his string works. i appreciate that i am being an idiot but it is what it is. :) .
 
Dear Philip,

Where it comes to Beethoven the keyboard composer and his music for strings, I fall on the string side. For example I have one complete and one half finished cycle of the String Quartets, and yet only three individual Piano Sonata performances on record. I do however love all five of his Piano Concertos, though only have two complete sets.

It cannot be entirely my feelings about the tuning of keyboard instrument being the reason as I love all of JS Bach's keyboard music, from the smallest Little Preludes to the huge Art Of Fugue.

Best wishes from George
 
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