Here’s a well-balanced
Finno-Norwegian disc that presents a
major concerto leavened by a shorter
work for violin and orchestra. Kraggerud’s
Sibelius Concerto is relatively measured
in its opening movement and the soloist
enters without that distracting "white"
tone so beloved of some superstar fiddlers;
his tone is properly warmed with vibrato
(and not on/off vibrato either) but
I felt concerned that he then piled
on the tone in a orgy of opulent lower
string passion; there were brief moments
of intonational difficulty here (2.05)
and the soloist’s sniffs attest to the
close up recording set up. The phrasing
and tone strike me as overwrought and
there are moments in this first movement
when momentum hangs fire and the cadential
passage is only variable. The slow movement
is much better, attractive in fact –
but vitiated only by too much undifferentiated
vibrato usage, because we could have
done with more subtlety of colouration
then Kraggerud gives. I liked the orchestral
detail in the finale, even though there
is some smudgy solo work here and there
– though the harmonics are bang on.
This is a taut and forward-looking conception
and never really plumbs those titanic,
granitic-triumphalist approaches that
leave one so involved.
Coupled with this masterpiece
we have the First Concerto of Sinding,
written in 1898, and a splendid example
of a composer who has been feasting
for so long on Bruch’s Scottish Fantasia
(1880) that he can’t get it out
of his head. Sinding – no hanging around
– pitches us straight in and there’s
a deal of late nineteenth century virtuoso
rhetoric amongst the rich romanticism,
with lyrical subsidiary themes and even
a touch of proto-Elgarian swagger at
one moment. The slow movement is orchestrally
forest-bleak over which the solo violin
spins its line; by turns auburn and
stern we lead straight to the finale.
This is winningly bustly, with a good
"pompous" tune, a bit of Tchaikovsky,
more Bruch, some Brahms Violin and Double
Concerto rhythms but also – the high
point – a reverie of intimacy and lyric
suggestiveness embedded as well. This
is a work that’s been recorded before
– by Tellefsen and further back, on
LP, by Hugh Bean (neither of which I’ve
heard).
The two concertante
works are good; atmospheric Sibelius
and the previously unrecorded Sinding
Romance in D major of 1910 – whose passionate
lyricism put me in mind of the close
of the concerto.
The notes are good
but the recording balance sometimes
gets too close to the violin. I listened
to a SACD hybrid but on ordinary equipment
so can’t attest to its potential. The
Sinding is an enjoyable piece – good
to hear – but not one to pull you back,
except for the finale perhaps.
Jonathan Woolf
see also review
by Chris Howell
Henning Kraggerud (violin) 
