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Ernest BLOCH (1880-1959)
Violin Concerto (1938) [38:21]
Baal Shem for violin and orchestra (1923) [14:34]
Suite Hébraïque for violin and orchestra (1952) [13:06]
Zina Schiff
(violin)
Royal Scottish National Orchestra/José Serebrier
rec. Henry Wood Hall, Glasgow, 28-30 March 2006
NAXOS 8.557757 [66:01]
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Whilst
I don’t quite agree with the Naxos blurb that Bloch’s Violin
Concerto is ‘an underrated rarity’, there’s no doubt
that it ought to be better known. It’s a splendid, passionate
work that admittedly is hardly ever heard in the concert
hall but has received a number of excellent recordings over
the years. The catalogue has over the years been dominated
by various versions from its dedicatee Szigeti, my own favourite
being the Paris/Munch one recently revived on Naxos Historical> However
I got to know the work in the superb Menuhin/Kletzki EMI
disc recorded in the 1960s.
This
equally superb newcomer from Naxos could well be what this
piece has been waiting for – an excellent, committed performance
in exemplary sound and at budget price. Indeed, as I’ve played
and played it over the last days I find it hard to imagine
a better modern version. Credit first of all to conductor/composer
José Serebrier, who is having an exceptionally fruitful Indian
summer these days for Naxos. He obviously knows and loves
the piece, having recorded it before for ASV with a fiery
Michael Guttman and the RPO, a disc still highly rated. This
new version is slightly less impetuous but no less convincing,
as in the opening bars, where Serebrier treats the big first
theme broadly and nobly rather than forcefully or aggressively.
It sets up the mood of the long, rhapsodic first movement
ideally, letting the overlapping Jewish/Indian thematic phrases
emerge naturally while keeping a real grip on what can be
an unwieldy structure in the wrong hands. Time to mention
the wonderful soloist at last; Zina Schiff is a Heifetz protégé,
and obviously shares Serebrier’s admiration for this score.
In her excellent notes she rightly refers to the composer’s
own description of the concerto as portraying ‘… the complex,
glowing, agitated soul that I feel vibrating through the
Bible’, and this shows in her playing, which has an unbuttoned
emotional intensity without being cloying or sentimental.
She and Serebrier are at one in being relaxed yet spontaneous,
a very difficult balancing act. Her tone is glorious throughout
- try 5 minutes or so into the andante - and the orchestral
support well night ideal, with sumptuous string tone and
thrilling wind and brass - the opening of the finale. It
is a truly excellent recording and makes a very strong case
for the piece.
The
shorter works make excellent bedfellows. Baal Shem has
quite a few notable rivals but again Schiff’s mixture of
improvisatory abandon and emotional commitment are very hard
to beat. The piece is even more suffused with Jewish spirituality
than the concerto and is in three short movements, all memorable
in their melodic material and scoring. I especially like
the finale, ‘Rejoicing in the Law’, where once again Schiff’s
rock-steady intonation and tone colour are a joy, as is the
RSNO’s superb support.
The
slightly shorter Suite Hébraïque, originally for viola
and occasionally heard with piano accompaniment, is also
in three movements and once again celebrates what Schiff
calls ‘the eternal spirit of the Jewish people’. It’s another
passionate piece, with a finale whose main theme resembles
the finale of the concerto, and is given another strongly
characterised rendition.
This
disc has to be given a real thumbs-up, giving us as it does
all Bloch’s major works for violin and orchestra in thrilling
performances and with demonstration sound quality. Don’t
hesitate.
Tony Haywood
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