Search - Johannes Brahms, Jean Sibelius, Leonard Bernstein :: Brahms: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D Major Op. 77 / Sibelius: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D minor Op. 47 (The Royal Edition)
As good as it gets -- too bad there are only 5 stars!
11/03/1998
(5 out of 5 stars)
"If you like Sibelius' violin concerto, buy this recording; that's all there is to it. If you love that concerto (as I do), then stop reading this review and just buy the CD now. I've heard Ms. Salerno-Sonnenberg perform this concerto live, and she's so good, it's ridiculous. Music that reminds you (in case you need a reminder, as we all do from time to time) how much you love to be alive. If you get a chance to hear her play, run, do not walk, to the concert."
Miraculous
R. Plourde | Nashua, NH USA | 02/09/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Hmmm -- there are only five stars available. A pity.This performance of the Sibelius Concerto has to be definitive. (The recording itself is superb -- a bonus.) I've long been convinced that the Sibelius Concerto must not be performed in a civilized manner. It has to bring tears. The tears are there, in the score, but they have to be made real -- and this performance makes them real.There are a few recordings I hold as precious. One isn't even available commercially -- it was Solti's performance of Beethoven's Symphony #5 at Carnegie Hall with the CSO. (Don't bother looking -- none of the Solti performances on disk compare. I just happened to push the "record" button so as to capture the radio broadcast on tape.) Another is the Richter performance of Pictures at an Exhibition at Sofia (1958), which is probably still available on Philips -- look for "Richter Sofia Recital." Those were performances before an audience, and that probably has much to do with the electricity. But this is in the same musical class.The Richter and the Sonnenberg performances are both what I consider to be essentials. That doesn't mean that you'll like either. A friend of mine -- a violinist in a highly regarded string quartet -- despises Sonnenberg. "She isn't decent in her performances; they're too emotional." Another friend, a pianist, disliked the Richter performance -- "not disciplined, over the top, indecent." Raw intensity can be "too much" for many people; these performances are not for those who want to "appreciate" music, but be left untouched by it. But they're still worth hearing, if only to know one's own musical thresholds -- where not to go."
My favorite recording of this piece
A photographer | Planet Earth | 12/05/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I have eclectic taste in music and I have no expertise in any type. The Sibelius is one of my favorite violin concertos and this is my favorite recording of the piece. No, I don't know if Ms Salerno-Sonnenberg is a technically better violinist than any of the others who perform this piece and I really don't care. I have several recordings of this concerto and Nadja's performance simply tears my heart out. For me, the measure of success in any artform is whether or not the work evokes emotion. This is successful."
Original, Honest, Raw, Viceral, Wild, and Wonderful
Rumbachulo | Ithaca, NY USA | 10/26/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and Michael Tilson Thomas's recording of the Sibelius is a remarkable marriage of human outpourings. So often, this concerto-possibly because of its enormous combination of both musical and technical demands-swallows some of the most accomplished soloists whole.
I own dozens of recordings of this piece, and where many soloist come to the task with as much or more technical ability and experience as Salerno-Sonnenberg, somewhere between what Sibelius requires of the soloist and the actual performance, the soloist truckles to the composer's identity with rather bland and uninteresting essays of this work. Others are in battle from the first note, and give performances that sound like what a surfer cresting a wave looks like: sure, they're winning; they've beaten Sibelius, but was that object of the adventure?
It sometimes comforts us to classify that which moves us or changes us in the concert hall or on recordings as "definitive." But really what is a definitive performance if it is not one from which we walk away knowing as much about the performer(s) as we do about the composer? If not, why else would we go back to hear a performance of something we have already heard, or own several recordings of the same piece of music? What are we comparing? Technical prowess in an age when there are more technically proficient violinists prepared challenges presented by this work than ever? Is it possible to have a transcendent listening experience standing abascent to the score or the last performance we've heard?
Salerno-Sonnenberg and Tilson Thomas' performance of the Sibelius belongs in a third category of recordings of this concerto. Her reading of this work needs to be included in category along with the performances of Neveu, Jensen, Chung, and Kavakos of the same concerto. She is neither pushed along by the deluge the work creates, nor is she riding it, she integrates herself into its fabric. And like the readings of this work by Neveu, Jensen, Chung, and Kavakos, the conductor's unique sound is neither diminished nor does it overpower or threaten the soloist. Clearly, she and Michael Tilson Thomas worked closely together to produce a performance that says as much about them as it serves the composition. Each time I listen to this performance, I walk away feeling as if something new in this work as been revealed to me through these artists. Their honesty as highly consummate music makers and staunchly original persons brings to these readings that simply cannot be had anywhere else that is neither predictable nor mannered. Rather, it's something intimate as well as visceral, raw and exposed that can neither be classified or defined, but is very palpable.
"
It doesn't get any better than this
William K. Clark | Davis, CA United States | 07/27/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Sometimes a piece of music, a performer, and a performance all come together to make perfection. This is one of those times. Nadja always plays with passion and intelligence, but the Sibelius is one of the pieces for which she has a special affinity. The conductor matches her intensity, too - some of her concerto performances are marred by a conductor who seems almost sleepy in comparison with her white-hot intensity (I'm thinking of the Brahms concerto particularly). Not here, though. Every moment breathes with total involvement from all concerned."