Ginastera reveals himself as a natural successor to Paganini (but with more
profound musical interest) in this ferociously challenging concerto. The
orchestra is characteristically supplemented and is used like a repertory
company drawing on different forces for each section. The orchestra is
supplemented with six different groups of percussion instruments. The strings
comprise 16 firsts and 16 seconds, 12 violas and 12 cellos with six double
basses.
Starting as it means to go on it challenges the soloist in the most exposed
of ways with 4'26" of unaccompanied cadenza. The orchestra then bursts in
like a wave of chaotic energy blasting and thundering like the strongest
vitriolic climax by William Schuman. There is plenty of impressively unrelenting
darting display. Scudding feathery playing rambles over quiet orchestral
violins intoning an angular melody. The strange squirming microscopic amoeba
of the andante [6] register strongly. The adagio is the tormented heart of
the work. The following scherzo pianissimo is a study in strange tonalities
and scuttling horror. The finale is haunted by ghosts of Paganini 'as if
the shadow of the great violinist were hovering over the orchestra.' Through
a fantastic landscape peopled with creatures and weird plants the violin
rushes headlong as if possessed by a contagious feral panic. The applause
at the end is sincerely deserved. For all of its toughness this is a work
of attractions and intrigue.
I first got to hear this work in a no less impressive performance though
in markedly poorer sound on an off-air tape of a performance by Hyman Bress
with the Bamberg SO conducted by V Avdrakovitch. The recording capably captures
the barely audible to the most exultant of clamours. The thirty year age
of the tape and its analogue origins present no problem; with hiss being
hardly detectable.
Here the concerto is tracked into 11 segments (8 for the first movement;
1 for the second and 2 for the final movement) making for ease of access
and analysis by repeated hearing.
The Sonata was written during Bartók's final year at the Budapest
Conservatoire. It would have been No 1 but that was accorded to the 1920
sonata. This could have been a Brucknerian No. 0 but here it is shown as
simply Op Posth. This is a work of drenched romanticism - not at all the
Bartók of the Concerto for Orchestra or the later piano concertos
or violin concerto no 2. The notes claim a Brahmsian romanticism and I would
agree with that up to a point but it is offset by a fresher folksy nationalism.
What an interesting contrast. The Ginastera is work of the impressively possessed
avant garde. The Bartok is a work of refulgent romance and glowing lustre.
I thought (in the Bartók) of the first violin sonata by John Ireland
and a little of the rather wonderful first sonata by Thomas Dunhill. The
Hungarian spirit bursts, swirls and floods the scene at II 1.54. A Germanic
sternness overhangs the Vivace finale. This is plagued by Hungarian fireworks
and febrile bacchanalian power which relents into restful romance only to
return centre stage in the Hungarian accents of the succulently dashing closing
minutes. The finale overstays its welcome and would have been perfect at
five minutes rather than 8.44.
Those normally off-put by the more forbidding aspects of Bartók must
hear this piece. It has also been recorded by Susanne Stanzeleit (violin)
and Gusztáv Fenyö (piano) on ASV CDDCA982 - a recording I have
not heard. It is coupled on ASV with other pieces of Bartók's chamber
music. The Ginastera and Bartok coupling make for a tartly satisfying contrast
and both are works of considerable ambition and, in the case of the Ginastera
considerable satisfying achievement. To the best of my knowledge this is
the recording premiere of the Ginastera and as a work it is not otherwise
available.
Accardo is more than a full match for both works and his technique (and heart)
is daringly invested in the Ginastera which despite its challenging language
I commend freely as a work of musical splendours and boundary-liberated
imagination.
Reviewer
Rob Barnett
(Ginastera)
(Bartók)
*Salvatore Accardo
(violin)/Hopkins Center Orchestra/Mario di Bonaventura **Salvatore Accardo
(violin) / Noel Lee
(piano)
