Search - Zinman :: Elgar: Violin Concerto

A Fine Live Performance of Elgar's Violin Concerto

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 12/11/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It is our good fortune that the recording mikes were there when Gil Shaham played the lush, late romantic Elgar Concerto with David Zinman and the Chicago Symphony. Not that you could tell there was an audience until the burst of applause at the end. Still, there is the extra something that often happens when a recording is made during a live performance. Shaham and Zinman have played the concerto throughout the world with such orchestras as those of Montreal, Berlin, Cleveland, St. Louis and London's Philharmonia. And the two toured it with the Chicago. In fact, it was Zinman who urged Shaham to learn the concerto. It is for some of us a favorite violin concerto, very nearly the equal of the Brahms or Beethoven. It is an emotional, tuneful, often melancholy, always lyrical but also dramatic work. As Elgar himself wrote about it in a letter, 'It's good!, awfully emotional!, too emotional but I love it!' And so has the world. Still, the concerto doesn't get performed as often as it should.



The concerto was written for and premièred by Fritz Kreisler. It has been championed by such violin luminaries as Eugène Ysaÿe, Albert Sammons, Yehudi Menuhin, Itzhak Perlman and more recently by Nigel Kennedy, who has recorded it twice. My own favorite is Kennedy's first recording with Vernon Handley and the London Philharmonic. Kennedy's and Handley's way with the glorious slow movement is one of my desert island picks. And although I very much like this recording by Shaham, my vote still goes to the earlier Kennedy.



Shaham's playing is always marked by sweetness of tone and cleanness of line. He is perhaps not quite as emotional as some in this work, but there is sufficient tenderness and drama for this late Edwardian work. There is both eloquence and esprit in the outer movements. That magnificent middle movement is played as if it were chamber music, perfect for the inwardness of this most intimate of Elgarian works. The fearsome virtuosic elements of the finale are managed without any hint of strain and the reverie of the accompanied cadenza is aptly judged and quite effective. The coda reminds us again of the Andante and of the first movement's opening bars -- played 'lento, espressivo, nobilmente' -- and then the concerto suddenly comes to a brilliant swift conclusion.



This is a much more than creditable performance of this great concerto and is worthy of consideration. All the participants are in very good form here. The disc is a bit short, timewise, clocking in at 48:30, but its mid-price takes this into consideration. Sound is quite good. Booklet notes are by Andrew Neill, a former president of the Elgar Society, and are very helpful. And, something I always applaud, the booklet also lists all the members of the Chicago Symphony.



Scott Morrison"

A bright, outgoing reading that doesn't quite do Elgar justi

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 12/16/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Gil Shaham joins another American, Hilary Hahn, in giving us a fresh trans-Atlantic take on the Elgar concerto, which frankly remains as unknown to Americans as it is ubiquitous to the British. Elgar's discursive, often melancholy idiom resonates with English late imperialism -- it's like a swollen peach that has jsut reached the point of over-ripeness. I think it oversells the work to place it in the same league as Brahms and Beethoven. A just comparison would be Elgar's First Sym. -- both are full of passion and lyrical intensity.



How mortifying that the major labels have dropped an artist of Shaham's caliber (maybe it was his choice to go independent), but he's as good as ever. Zinman is a routine conductor, and his literalism fails to find the depths of Elgar's score. Even so, how much can go wrong with the Chicago Sym. as accompanist? The recorded sound is good enough, probably done by the orchestra or the local classical FM station.



Which brings me to a point I wish I didn't have to make. I don't think Shaham tells a story here. He's bright and forward too much of the time, resisting the mature, inward nature of the music. His constant displays wore me out, even as I recognized an eminent musician doing his best. But older recordings by Menuhin and Kennedy are too imposing for this merely good one to prevail."

Reminds me of Jacqueline

Mike Le Voi | 12/18/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There are some times in your life when you say to yourself "How come I never heard this work before?". For me, this is one such recording. I have for many years been a fan of the Elgar Cello Concerto - especially with Jacqui playing it - and here is a performance that is just as wonderful.



Am I lucky or unlucky? Other reviewers have compared this recording to Menuhin's or Kennedy's. As I have not heard these other recordings, I cannot judge if they are "better" or not. All I can say is - I got to age 58 without hearing this work - and this performance makes me regret this fact :-(



All of Elgar's trademarks are present - in the same way that when you listen to the Walton Violin Concerto - you hear constant echos of the superior, in my opinion, Viola Concerto. It is almost always the case that whatever you hear first frames your subsequent view on life. So, if this is your first encounter with this violin concerto - have no fear - you will enjoy it.

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