This recording first appeared on the Philips label, and now
re-emerges from Newton, a recently formed company based in The
Netherlands, sourcing the riches of items deleted from larger
company’s vaults and archives. Of the titles available so far,
this has to be the least expected image for the cover design
and if I’m not mistaken it would appear to be the underside
of Scheveningen pier – a structure I wouldn’t normally associate
with ‘the memory of an Angel’, though I suppose it does have
a somewhat melancholy and abandoned feel to go along with the
fishy smell.
Gidon Kremer’s ‘narrative’ playing style suits Berg’s emotional
and angst-charged Violin Concerto perfectly, and his
searing treble intensity and multi-layered expressiveness is
given a thorough workout through this most marvellous of scores
even where the first movement is taken at a more relaxed pace
than with many other recordings. Colin Davis is a superbly sensitive
accompanist, and he obtains the very best from the Symphonieorchester
des Bayerischen Rundfunks. Berg’s orchestration is rich and
colourful, but takes skilled balancing to obtain the kind of
transparency and dynamic power and contrast we have here. I
do however have a point to add to Gramophone magazine’s comment
from the time: ‘The chorale is played with affecting restraint,
the woodwind really hushed...’ Yes indeed, but those clarinets
as they enter at 8:11 in the second movement are not well in
tune enough to give me the goose-pimple effect for which I long
in this crucial section.
Intonation in the brass and winds is occasionally on the margins
in the Three Orchestral Pieces, but this is still a high-impact
and effective performance. This is the work with which Berg
responded to his teacher Schoenberg’s admonition against following
a path of miniaturism, and the young composer responded with
a remarkable score. The work, while still leaning on the example
of Mahler to a certain extent, also reveals a mind exalting
in the complexity of new thematic cross-fertilisations and explorations
of mood and emotion which were new and personal.
The playing time on this disc is a bit skimpy, and even though
the recording does come from a time before the CD had entirely
taken over from LP records this would always have been a programme
calling out for an extra filler of some kind. Classic versions
of the Violin Concerto include those by Anne-Sophie Mutter
on Deutsche Grammophon with the stunning Chicago Symphony Orchestra,
and I still have a great deal of time and affection for Joseph
Suk with the Czech Philharmonic and Karel Ancerl on Supraphon.
This re-release doesn’t quite have the grandeur its august artistic
team would suggest, but is certainly worth considering at mid
price. Kremer and Davis very much create the mood and atmosphere
demanded by Berg’s tragic and transcendent Violin Concerto,
and the recording certainly stands the test of time, even with
its slight ‘early digital’ treble sheen.
Dominy Clements
Gidon Kremer (violin) 
