Search - Ludwig van Beethoven, Thomas Zehetmair :: Beethoven: Violin Concerto; 2 Romances

Very original, very fine; Bruggen sets the standard for HIP

John Grabowski | USA | 08/05/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The reviewers below me call this performance fresh and unpretentious, and I think that hits it right on the noggin. This is a very fleet Beethoven concerto, lighter and faster than we are typically used to hearing, but it's certainly not light*weight,* and the approach makes us feel we are hearing the work with new ears, which is the only reason I can justify adding a 15th recording of the LvB VC to my sagging shelves. Bruggen and his players still manage to give us spiritual radiance and the grand experience, telegraphing what an extraordinary work this was, while avoiding the sound of heavier, thicker, late 19th century conceptions of Beethoven. The recording, a live effort that has crystaline clarity and a nearly dead-silent audience, is a finely-textured experience with small forces and few loud moments. This is almost Beethoven's violin concerto as chamber music, and it works.



I'm not exactly sure how kosher this recording is, though--not that I care. The violinist plays with a free vibrato--I thought that was *verbotten* by periodistas. The orchestra doesn't, however. The real-world necessity for the vibrato by the soloist is to project into the concert hall, and halls are larger now than they were in Beethoven's day. At the same time, this vibrato has the effect of sweetening the tone and making this a very bucolic Beethoven violin concerto. Occasionally I find the first moment's tempo just a **little** rushed--there are moments where I want things to breathe more--but on the whole the approach works, and it's refreshingly different from conductors who think the way to mine a Beethoven violin concerto is to keep slooowing down all the time in the first movement. The Larghetto is gorgeous and the forte chords that announce the finale, along with the springy interplay among the strings and solist in the coda, really make sense and reveal subtlties in the orchestration that often get covered with thicker, heaver, and louder readings (eg, Bernstein's recording with Stern). What's really a miracle about this recording is how softly and delicately these forces sometimes play, yet you never feel they are about to lose control. Bruggen's pin-point (yet never mechanical) control and depth of feeling qualify him, I feel, as one of today's greatest conductors, yet for some reason his name is often overlooked when there's a rollcall of the greats, and that includes by me.



I have only one complaint: Zehetmair went with Wolfgang Schneiderhan's cadenzas. They're not very coherent, and in fact this great concerto has inspired many cadenzas, but few great ones. My favorites belong to Kreisler, and no one plays them better than Isaac Stern, in the aforementioned Bernstein recording (Sony); In the present disc, the cadenzas, with their silly tam-tamming in the first movement and the frequent lengthy breaks in the finale, may seem intrusive to some listeners. But, at the end of the day, this is a minor reservation, given the over-all quality of both soloist and orchestra here.



For a recording on the complete opposite side of the spectrum--very slow and seamless and not at all "period proper"--you really must hear Furtwangler with Yehudi Menuhin, 1947 Music & Arts live performance (as opposed to the later studio effort on EMI, which is completely different and much less satisfying). That release suffers from poor sound, however, even for the time, so audiophiles may want to beware. For a good straight-ahead performance in modern sound, Chung/Tennstedt (also live) should be considered."

Fire and Ice

Music Lover | Germany | 08/11/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A very fresh and original interpretation: fiery, moody, and romantic by turns. Zehetmaier plays as if he were the very first person to bring this music to an audience. There is no noticable reverence or bowing to the past, just all the beauty passion and joy of this wonderful concerto played with effortless brilliance. I don't know a recent CD that can come even close."

Authentic excellence

J. van den Berg | Netherlands | 05/28/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"These Beethoven violin concerts are remarkable: the interpretation is fresh, basic, and unpretentious. Being one of the most popular violin concerts, hearing an interpretation like this one is really refreshing!

Played on authentical instruments the sound is 'dolce' and colourful. Is was also wonderfully recorded, so if you are interested in buying these concerts this cd would be a great choice... (yes, it sounds a little like some kind of advertorial, but it's just that great...)"