MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger


 
REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
CD: AmazonUK AmazonUS
Download: Classicsonline


Karol SZYMANOWSKI (1882-1937)
Violin Concerto No. 1 Op. 35 (1916) [26:12]
Antonín DVOŘÁK (1841 - 1904)
Romance in F Minor Op. 11 (1873-79) [11:44]
Violin Concerto in A Minor, Op. 53 (1884) [33:37]
Arabella Steinbacher (violin)
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin/Marek Janowski
rec. May 2009, Haus des Rundfunks, Berlin
PENTATONE CLASSICS PTC5186353 [71:44]

Experience Classicsonline

Arabella Steinbacher has previously released a number of recordings on the Orfeo label, with both Shostakovich concertos, and those by Berg, Beethoven, Khatchaturian and Milhaud already under her belt. She now appears on the SACD specialist Pentatone label, perhaps taking over the baton from Julia Fischer after her move to Decca.

I do love a good violin concerto disc, and was looking forward to this rather intriguing programme - mixing the highly charged and heavily scented romanticism of Szymanowski with the rugged open spaces of Dvořák. While it does make for a good technical listen in sound-engineering terms, I’m afraid it doesn’t quite make it into the ‘great recordings’ category as a set of performances.

My reference for the Szymanowski Violin Concerto No. 1 Op. 35 is that with Thomas Zehetmair with Sir Simon Rattle and the CBSO on EMI 5 55607 2. Rattle may not be all things to all people, but I do feel he gets Szymanowski right most of the time, and his Stabat Mater recording on the same label is the best and most beautiful I know. At once, the differences are clear. Rattle’s Birmingham forces fill the opening with restless energy and expectancy, the instruments of the orchestra colouring and conversing, laying fertile ground for the violin solo to tell its mysterious story of passion and lament. I’m afraid we don’t get much of this kind of thing from Janowski’s Berlin Radio orchestra. Everything is competently played, but the landscape is neon-lit and lacking in atmosphere. Comparing the orchestral string sound between the two, it seems as hardly any attention has been paid to creating that lushness of texture which this music demands. The same goes for when things liven up. Rattle teases, unleashing the climaxes with inflections of delay and rubato, turning the music into an organic, living thing. Janowski is dynamic, sometimes, but far too mechanical, lacking in pace and energy where the music attacks and drives, dissipating what little tension there is by dragging from an already slower base tempo in the all important opening Vivace assai.

Arabella Steinbacher is a good violinist, but Zehetmair shows us what’s what in the cadenza for this concerto. His violin crackles and sparkles with extremes of range and urgent dynamic where Steinbacher’s explores without quite finding the nugget, pure and sweet though her high tones are. The Wagnerian ‘big tune’ which launches us into the finale is a breathtaking ride on Rattle’s magnificent flying machine. I’m afraid Janowski’s looms out of the fog and retreats rather ingloriously, the rather fussily over-prominent piano unfortunately helping to kill the atmosphere rather than adding fizz to the general soundscape. If you are a fan of the dark romance of 1916 the choice is that between Szymanowski’s story being told to you by an ancient mariner in a candle-lit, darkly oak-panelled snug, or by the man behind the counter in the snack-bar next door with the white formica surfaces.

On to Dvořák’s Violin Concerto in A Minor, Op. 53, a piece with plenty of world class recordings in the catalogue. Aside from this release’s SACD sonic credentials, it is hard to find a reason for giving it a recommendation over Maxim Vengerov and Kurt Masur on Teldec, or another competitive young female in Sarah Chang, whose recording on EMI with Sir Colin Davis also has a fine performance of the A major Piano Quintet. As with the Szymanowski, this performance is more workmanlike than inspirational. All the notes are in the right place, but there’s not a great deal else going on behind them. As with the other concerto on this disc, the energy and urgency in the outer movements is never given much chance to take hold, as if Dvořák’s ma non troppo marking for each is taken as being the principal guide: ‘not too much, someone might get hurt...’ With this in mind, one would hope at least that the Adagio ma non troppo would avoid becoming too sentimental, but with Steinbacher sliding between the notes once or twice too often for my taste even this aim is rather coyly scuppered. The Finale - Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo is missing almost all of its dance-like movement in this performance, and as a result most of its joy. Leaden and mechanical are the two words which sum it up, and I’m sorry to have had to use them. Dvořák’s Romance Op.11 is a nice enough filler, but even were this to be a world-beating performance it would be too little too late. In the end it sounds like what it is; a filler, pleasant but not especially memorable.

As per usual, Pentatone have created a fine, natural sound for the orchestra. The solo violin is fairly forward but not painfully so, and the moments where the soloist mixes into and melts into the orchestral sound are well enough balanced in the Szymanowski. Taken in isolation, this is a disc which probably won’t offend your sensibilities, and fans of Arabella Steinbacher will no doubt appreciate being able to hear her in surround-sound. There is, however, so much more in this music than this release offers, and it would be disingenuous of me to praise it over so many other, more inspired recordings.

Dominy Clements

 

 

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.