Search - Nikolaj Znaider :: Nikolaj Znaider: Nielsen - Violin Concerto & Max Bruch - Violin Concerto No. 1, G-minor

Wow, These V Ctos are sooopa: Nielsen & Bruch - 5 STARS

Dan Fee | Berkeley, CA USA | 09/05/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This disc was released as Nikolaj Znaider's debut disc on EMI. He has now jumped labels, but good for dear old EMI/Angel, they retain him in their catalogue.



While the Bruch is an easy choice for a first violin concert outing, it also might be viewed as too fraught with risk, too. How many listeners already have sweet memories of other good and great violinists who have also recorded it so well?



So it must take some nerve to do the Bruch. But. More about that in a moment.



What about the Carl Nielsen?



As to the concerto itself, the more often I have heard it lately, the more I am convincing myself that it probably is the greatest violin concerto of the 20th century. It towers like the Beethoven or the Brahms or the Mendelssohn over the beautiful topography of its neighbors amidst the relevant era's musical landscape.



Some of that heady esteem may no doubt be due to this performance in particular. Yes. In particular. High props to all involved.



Znaider simply brings a stunning and persuasive combination of incredible gifts to bear upon his very personal, deftly etched vision of this modern concerto. He of course makes its technical difficulties sound like a stroll in the greenest park on the sunniest, warm day. If he ever breaks a sweat from gut-stringed effort, it simply doesn't show. But, what is beneath all that stupendous technique is the real deal that wins hearts, musical hearts, human hearts.



Based on technique alone, Znaider sounds like he is as gifted as was Heifitz, right from the start. But he is warmer and more openly Mediterranean than Heifitz usually sounded. His violin tone is never anything but superbly refined, pure silver, but this metal was born in fires and furnaces and behind the sheen glows such sensual hot stuff that one is a bit embarrassed to admit one hears it, too. Znaider's obvious intellect doesn't keep such a relentless grip on either his sense of fun, or on his Mona Lisa smile, or on that precious effervescent joy of just being alive in such wonderful music - as just might have often been the case with Jascha H.



The supposed structural oddities of the Nielsen simply disappear under Znaider's fingers. A listener does not wish for any other way of the composer's story being told than blessedly happens on this disc. The directness and charm are winning, even disconcerting. The musical greatness of the Nielsen doesn't come through, then, because Znaider is huffing and puffing and grandstanding. No, not at all. You can start off, receiving this visitor as the affable and somewhat old fashioned Nordic stranger you probably first take him to be, and yet still end up in awe of his rustic idealism, simple but starry musical imagination - and depth, depth, depth.



True to his technical and more genius, Znaider doesn't skimp when Nielsen jokes around, laughing, nudging, punning, almost skipping along. Sometimes a listener to all this fun being poked in passing feels like he is a third party passerby to the big jokes being made between the composer and the violinist. Here, try this one, Nielsen seems to be saying, knowing full well that not one light, fast note of that last violin run was easy in the least.



Znaider is so technically sure of himself that one never fears he will fall off the musical fences. Indeed, he seems positively capable of impossible levitations at the very same time that a phrased inflection, true to Nielsen, wafts sweet with clover, greens, and fertile loam. If this violin concerto had a sub-title, it would have to be something like, Springtime in Funen.



If you already know and love this Nielsen, this performance will readily take pride of place, even among outstanding precedents. If you don't know the violin concerto yet, wow are you in for a lucky, lucky, lucky day. Don't be impatient. Listen for a while. It may take Nielsen a few spins to get under your skin, and then the spins will be like a new love affair.



So back to the Bruch G minor. (Number one.)



All of the high noon light and human depth that Znaider offers us in the Nielsen are applied to the Bruch, too. If you have thought of that concerto as entirely melodic and beautiful, but not wise beyond its eternal youth and freshness, it may now start sounding as if it belonged to the same family as the eternally youthful Mendelssohn. Not just the melody, but the latent perfection of balance and form is highlighted by Znaider. He never sounds bored with the Bruch. He never takes its heart or melody for granted, while he obviously is enchanted for the time being with being tonight's most gallant escort. He treats the Bruch with such courtesy that the concerto is renewed, not a tattered or cliché note to be heard.



In these two fine efforts, the London Philharmonic and conductor Lawrence Foster keep up just fine with Znaider. There is nothing ho-hum or customary about the orchestra, which on occasion has been too facile in some of its recordings. It's not just that the notes are here, it is that all are involved, and the music is here. The recording venue was Watford, but thank goodness, not the Coliseum's awful haze in the round. Something of Znaider's poise, humor, and expert sense of ease seems to infect all the players. In both violin concertos. If this sort of thing is catching, let us have more of it, please.



So, five stars. If the record labels were as capable of musical vision as they used to be, way back in the golden ages of stereo, somebody would already have signed Znaider up for the long run. Very highly recommended."