MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... 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

Chandos recordings
All Chandos 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: MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS
Sound Samples & Downloads

William WALTON (1902 - 1983)
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (1938) [30:36]
Two Pieces for Strings from Henry V (1944) [4:36]
Samuel BARBER (1910 - 1981)
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra Op.14 (1939-40) [21:56]
Adagio for Strings Op.11 (1938) [8:52]
Thomas Bowes (violin)
Malmö Opera Orchestra/Joseph Swensen
rec. Malmö Opera and Music Theatre, Sweden, 8-12 March 2010
SIGNUM SIGCD238 [66:02]

Experience Classicsonline


This is another of those discs that I find hard to review. In its own right this captures fine idiomatic and technically secure performances in good if not great sound. Violinist Thomas Bowes is not a name known widely on the international circuit but on the evidence of this disc his playing is the match of many more celebrated players - indeed in the Walton he is much more secure than one of my favourite players Aaron Rosand. But the rub is, does this disc merit purchasing before any of the other versions of either or both concertos? By that highest of all criteria I would have to say no. But for the moment I would rather dwell on the positives. Conductor Joseph Swensen is a fine violinist in his own right and from the liner-note it is clear that he and Bowes are friends as well as musical colleagues. This ensures that there is a real mutual rapport and understanding between fiddle and stick that means the many ensemble/sectional minefields in the Walton in particular are negotiated with ease. Likewise the Malmö Opera Orchestra - although perhaps a little light in numbers in the strings - are agile and alert accompanists. Add fine production and engineering from Tony Harrison and Mike Hatch and the omens are good.
 
The Walton Violin Concerto is one of this great composer’s finest works. His detractors will tell you that apart from a burst of extraordinary creative energy in the decade or so from the debut of Façade in 1922 his career was a long slow decline into a late romantic nostalgia. They might even go further and cite this concerto as the first work to exhibit this ‘malaise’. I would argue quite differently - and avoiding the epithet ‘bitter-sweet’ which dogs descriptions of Walton’s music - that in his mature works he found a balance between the nervous energy of the earlier works and the vein of lyricism that is central to all of Walton’s best work. If one did want to characterize it it should be as the first of his ‘Mediterranean’ works written mainly as it was at Ravello near Amalfi. Add waspish humour and a capricious sexiness and it can be seen that there is a complex and elusive personality to this music that is hard for both performers and listeners to comprehend. Given that it was commissioned by Jascha Heifetz adds a layer of technical complexity too that daunts all but the finest and bravest players. My main observation with Bowes’ performance is that he is very strong on the technical aspect and indeed quite forceful throughout but along the way loses the nonchalant slyness the music really needs. The very opening is the key to the success of any performance; the violin part is marked sognando which I would interpret as dreaming rather than dreamily. Following the score I had forgotten just the level of detail that Walton has applied to the solo line with changes to dynamics and phrasing in almost every bar. To be honest Bowes rather generalizes these which as I say underplays the skittish quality. Coming back to this concerto I was reminded of just what a fine work it is so I particularly enjoyed digging out other older versions. As mentioned before Aaron Rosand rather disappointed sounding simply too effortful although James Judd and his Florida orchestra have full measure of Walton’s orchestral writing. Nigel Kennedy on EMI with Previn and the RPO are very good - the bigger orchestra giving the work an opulence that is not an option here and Kennedy reminding one what a fine player he is technically and musically. I’m not sure any conductor quite finds the balance between the syncopating rhythms and the lyrical in Walton as well as Previn. Kyung Wha Chung is also accompanied by Previn this time with the LSO on Decca but doesn’t quite win me over in the charm stakes. Ida Haendel with Berglund and his Bournemouth orchestra are simply magnificent right down to a glorious EMI (again) analogue recording. Lydia Mordkovich with Jan Latham-Koenig as part of the Chandos Walton edition is good and interestingly coupled but lacking the multi-faceted nature of the music. I like rather more the bargain Naxos version from Dong-Suk Kang coupled with the Cello Concerto. This is a very sensible coupling and as with much of that series of discs from Naxos benefits from Paul Daniels’ conducting which shows a real feel for the Waltonian idiom. Menuhin with Walton again on EMI has historical value but cannot compete on a purely technical level. But that leaves me with one other recording which sadly deals the knock-out blow for me and the feisty Bowes. It is the 2006 version from James Ehnes and Bramwell Tovey on Onyx. Good though Bowes is Ehnes is exceptional, his ability to sail through passages of ferocious difficulty is little short of staggering. None of the above players - Haendel is pretty remarkable though - on a technical level alone play this piece as accurately as Ehnes. But then he transcends mere accuracy and brings to the music a flippancy and easy wit that is just so very right. And the killer blow for Bowes is that Ehnes couples this with the same Barber concerto and throws in a wonderful Korngold Concerto for good measure. Lastly the Onyx engineering gives all the players a more natural perspective and Tovey’s Vancouver orchestra is every bit the match of the Swedish team here.
 
In many ways the Barber is a simpler more linear and less quixotic work - although written a couple of years after the Walton it is more overtly backward looking emotionally. Again it has received many fine performances but Bowes need fear few of them. Overall - for all of the impressive technical address of the Walton - I prefer Bowes in the Barber. Curiously the orchestra are slightly less compelling here. This is due again to the number of players so the weight of string tone is generated more by close miking than force of numbers. If forced to choose I would turn to Gil Shaham’s glorious account on DG which also coupled the Korngold. Interestingly I saw Shaham play the Walton in London last year and he is an ideal exponent of that work which I do not think he has recorded.
 
The bringing together of these two like-minded concertos makes for a very satisfying disc and no-one buying this disc alone would be anything but pleased with their purchase. The couplings slightly annoy me because they smack too readily of ‘session fillers’- easy for the orchestra to slap down in the last few minutes of available time. To be fair the performances of these string works are perfectly good but not the reason anyone will be buying the disc. And compared to Ehnes’ Korngold there is no competition on interest grounds even before one makes qualitative judgments. Liner notes in English only are provided by Bowes and Adam Chambers. Passing mention is made of use of David Lloyd-Jones’ ‘new edition’ of the Walton concerto without mentioning what this actually means for the listener which I find a little frustrating. I feel rather guilty guiding potential buyers away from a disc of so many virtues but it is the musical equivalent of coming second to Usain Bolt in the 100 metres final - no disgrace but not the winner either.
 
Nick Barnard 


 


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.