How
do you like your Bruch? Sweet and sentimental or more down-to-earth?
When I grew up Swedish Radio’s only channel had a programme
late every Christmas Eve, “Santa Claus in the Gramophone
Archive”. A recurring piece of music was the Adagio movement
from Bruch’s first violin concerto. As far as I remember
it was always very sweet, very sentimental.
I have no recollection of who was the player, if it was
the same recording every year. Anyway, when I got old enough
to buy my own record player one of the first LPs was Wolfgang
Schneiderhan playing the traditional coupling of Mendelssohn
and Bruch. This has ever since been my benchmark version
of both works. Unfortunately the record is now so scratched
that it is unplayable so I couldn’t compare the present
disc with the old master. My memory tells me, however,
that Schneiderhan, without being sentimental had more sweetness
of tone and a more even, less obtrusive, vibrato than Maxim
Fedotov. Schneiderhan was more classically balanced while
Fedotov is more down-to-earth. He plays with an incandescence
that is refreshing and made at least this reviewer listen
with renewed interest. And there is corresponding bite
in the orchestra, Yablonsky and Fedotov obviously being
of one mind as to how this music should be performed. The
celebrated Adagio gets its fair share of sweetness,
or rather inwardness. It is in fact rather subdued which
actually makes it even more beautiful. This is a fully
valid version of the oft-recorded concerto and at budget
price no one wanting this music need feel short-changed.
Even well stocked collectors may feel tempted by this issue,
due to the two “fillers”, which are rarely heard and rarely
recorded. Salvatore Accardo recorded everything by Bruch
decades ago. I don’t believe they are available at present.
While
the first violin concerto – he wrote three – is a work
from his relative youth, the two-movement Konzertstück was
written late in life when he was past 70. It is a beautiful,
well crafted piece and even if it lacks the youthful freshness
of the concerto it still has many of the same characteristics,
Bruch not being one to change his musical language during
his long career. This is music that needs a whole-hearted
advocate and Fedotov lavishes all his energy and intensity
as he does in the Romance. This was originally intended
as the first movement of his second concerto but in the
last resort he decided to publish it as a separate work.
Initially somewhat darker than the concerto it soon turns
out to be a grateful vehicle for technical wizardry, but
as with so much of Bruch’s music it is the cantabile character
that stays in the memory.
Neither
of these two works are barn-storming “finds” but they are
agreeable and attractive. I derived a lot of pleasure from
the whole disc. Playing time is not over-generous but the
price is attractive, Keith Anderson contributes one of
his splendid essays and the recorded sound is all one could
wish.
Göran Forsling
see also reviews by Michael
Cookson (June
Bargain of the Month)
and Christopher Fifield
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Maxim Fedotov
(violin), 
