At budget price, the so-called Violini Concerto is worth hea
Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 01/11/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Janacek didn't write a violiin concerto, and it's not clear he actually began one. In 1988 a reconstruction was made from sketches of a work that later got absorbed into his 1926 opera "From the House of the Dead." But this is by no means a bastardized work. It's a fascinating 13 min. snippet of late Janacek, which is always worth hering. The work is so quirky as to be indescribable--there is a seonse of constant improvisation on themes that meld and merge, while the orchestra does strange things along the lines of the nature sounds in The Cunning LIttle Vixen. This 1990 performance by Christiane Edinger is lovely and very well recorded.
Vaclav Neumann and his Baden-Baden orchestra play on eveyr piece here. They are fine in the background of the concerto, but the brass aren't up to the famous Sinfonietta, unless you think that Janacek wanted them to bray loud and out of tune (admittedly, it's a fearsome work for the brass section.) This not very generous CD (56 min.) ends with the always welcome Suite from "The Cunning LIttle Vixen" in a mild, sweet performance. But the main reason to sample this bargain disc is for the concerto."
Quirky yet worthwhile
Alice Taniyama | Houston, Texas United States | 02/02/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I bought this album within five minutes of seeing it for the first time. My motivation for doing so was my shock at seeing a Leos Janacek violin concerto. "What is this?" I asked myself.
I had to repeat the question after hearing the piece; it sounds nothing like a violin concerto, although that isn't necessarily a completely bad thing. Had I not seen the label on the CD case before inserting the disc into my car stereo, I might have though I had mistakenly grabbed something by Dvorak. Then, I might have thought the conductor for the Dvorak had been assassinated mid-motion and replaced with someone determined to get the orchestra and soloist to play Hector Berlioz, and then it gets weirder. By the end, I might have thought the entire thing a concoction of musical oddities by disparate composers spliced together and given the only the thinnest of connecting threads, with the result being something both supemely strange and almost sublimely beautiful.
Of course, the truth is that the piece was only a few fragments Janacek wrote that someone else cut together after his death and onto which was affixed the label of "violin concerto," but such historical thoughts hardly spoil the musical potpourri when the listener allows himself or herself to become absorbed into the brave new world of Janacek solo violin. The disc is worth its price just for this rare experience, although having another recording of the famous Sinfonietta and a side helping of Cunning Little Vixen helps."
Track Listings (8) - Disc #1