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Contemporary Violin Concertos


MartyJazz

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I've always dug practically all the 19th Century Romantic Violin VCs. I have a few of the early 20th C VCs, e.g., Stravinsky, Bartok, Elgar, Prokofiev, Britten, Walton. Recently, I picked up Philip Glass' VC, after having heard it featured, and (surprisingly for me) liked it, on the soundtrack of a French film I Netflixed, "La Moustache". Anyway, I would appreciate some recommendations for VCs composed within the last 40-50 or so years, preferably not those that reflect a Schoenberg or Shostakovich influence .

Incidentally, the Glass version used in the film was a Naxos recording, a budget label that features many of the lesser known classical composers as well as performers and orchestras.

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If you like the Walton, you’ll probably like the Alan Rawsthorne concertos:

http://www.amazon.com/Rawsthorne-Concertos...5304&sr=1-1

I’d also recommend Dutilleux’s concerto, L'arbre des songes:

http://www.amazon.com/Henri-Dutilleux-Orch...5589&sr=1-3

Both of these recordings are good and inexpensive.

Your no Schoenberg, no Shostakovich influence inhibits me some, but there’s the Stravinsky concerto, the Samuel Barber (some would say that it might as well have been written in the 19th Century, but I disagree), the Nielsen, Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s Concerto Funebre, and a lot of others that I’ll add as I think of them/look further. Also, and I hope EDC isn’t reading, I was more impressed by the John Adams concerto than I have been by any of his other works. Also, there's a remarkably ecstatic concerto by the late American composer Paul Cooper (b. 1926); it’s a CRI cutout at Berkshire:

http://www.berkshirerecordoutlet.com/cgi-b...=AND&RPP=25

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A few thoughts:

*I didn't see the Berg Violin Concerto on your list and it's among the most ravishing works in the repertoire -- it's a 12-tone work but the row is set up to exploit tonal relationships and Berg's sublime romanticism is a constant miracle.

*Among brand new concertos, I'm in the John Adams camp. He's written two -- the first has a more traditional cast (though in his language, of course) and the second, "The Dharma at Big Sur" is for electric violin and is very jazz oriented.

*I heartily endorse Larry's recommendation of the Dutilleux, and would add that he recently completed a second concerto, "Sur le meme accord," for Anne-Sophie Mutter, who recorded it a couple years ago for DG. It's only 9 minutes long but it's a real sweatheart of a piece. It's coupled on CD with Mutter's earlier recordings of the Bartok Second and Stravinsky. (Related note: Don't miss Dutilleux's Cello Concerto either, "Tout un monde Lointain.")

*I like Takemitsu's "Far Calls, Coming, far!" (1980). It's in the stream-of-conciousness, impressionistic tradition coming out of Debussy, similar in many ways to the Dutilleux in that it's not really goal-oriented. You can sort of split 20th century Violin Concertos into two big camps -- the virtuoso, heroic works growing from the 19th century tradition (Barber, Bartok, Nielsen, Adams, etc.) and those that are more chamber music writ large (Dutilleux, Takemitsu, Berg).

*Some others I can suggest in widely varying styles;

Kaija Saariaho, "Graal Theatre" (fantastic colors, textures, impressionistic, darting -- akin to the Dutilleux )

Bernstein's "Serenade" (Americana)

Elliott Carter's Violin Concerto (super high modernist density)

Oliver Knussen, Violin Concerto (neo-Stravinskian)

William Bolcom, Violin Concerto (gutsy, post-modern eclectic).

Edited by Mark Stryker
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William Stenhammar's concerto (coupled with the Berwald and one by Tor Aulin -- all played very well by Tobias Ringborg):

http://www.amazon.com/Swedish-Romantic-Vio...0303&sr=1-1

The Piston concertos (both this and the disc above are inexpensive, on Naxos):

http://www.amazon.com/Piston-Violin-Concer...0357&sr=1-1

The Frank Martin concerto (on a mid-priced two-disc set with a lot of other interesting Martin):

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_m/103-99...p;x=16&y=15

Don't see an in-print recording of the Othmar Schoeck concerto, which is special IIRC. Schoeck wrote it for the same female fiddler Stefi Geyer for whom Bartok wrote his long-unpublished first concerto. Both Bartok and and Schoeck were in love with Geyer, who apparently was quite the thing, but Schoeck was really ga-ga over her, as he seems to have been over many women in his time. Schoeck's numerous songs are special too.

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Another fascinating but overlooked piece from the first half of the 20th century is Karol Szymanowski's Second Violin Concerto (1933) -- ripe with Polish folk melody folded into a late-romantic sound world redolent of Scriabin and Strauss. I heard Leonidas Kavakos play this recently with the Detroit Symphony and was quite taken by him and the piece.

MS

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Thanks one and all for your enthusiastic recommendations which I will pursue. While I hadn't mentioned all I had in my initial post, I do have the John Adams 1993 VC (Gidon Kremer, Kent Nagano/LSO, Nonesuch) as well as the Barber among those that were recommended. The Berg I have on an old clean Columbia LP (guess all LPs are "old" at this point) that features Krasner with Rodzinski & the Cleveland Orch - will unbuckle the turntable in view of the rapturous recommendation posted. Will then also listen to the Schoenberg which I also have on another bequeathed Columbia LP (Krasner again with Mitropoulos/PSONY), to see whether my opinion of this work has changed.

Edited by MartyJazz
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Another fascinating but overlooked piece from the first half of the 20th century is Karol Szymanowski's Second Violin Concerto (1933) -- ripe with Polish folk melody folded into a late-romantic sound world redolent of Scriabin and Strauss. I heard Leonidas Kavakos play this recently with the Detroit Symphony and was quite taken by him and the piece.

MS

:tup I have it, with Concerto No. 1, on LP with Konstantly Kulka and Jerzy Maksymiuk, still available on CD:

http://www.amazon.com/Karol-Szymanowski-Co...5238&sr=1-6

These seem like excellent perfomances to me, but I also have a Concerto No. 1 on LP with Wanda Wilkormiska and Witold Rowicki that's absolutely

hair-raising. That recording is from one of my luckiest ever used-record store finds -- a five-LP Polskie Nagranskie all-Szymanowski box, three-and-a-half discs of orchestral works, all conducted by Rowicki, one-and-a-half discs of songs and String Quartet No. 1. Is there a newer coupling of the concertos than the Kulka that anyone wants to endorse? I see there's a Naxos that's gotten good reviews, and the conductor there (Wit) has done some fine work. Don't know of the fiddler, though.

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I used to have Ernest Bloch's violin concerto by Yehudi Menuhin when I had classical records - it was one of my favourites. Vaughan-Williams ripped it off for his own violin concerto (not recommended) a few years later.

MG

Again on LP, I have this by Hyman Bress, Rohan/Prague Symphony Orch; Supraphon label. Thumbs up.

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