Britten & Walton: Violin & Viola Concertos; Maxim Vengerov

Britten & Walton: Violin & Viola Concertos; Maxim Vengerov

Britten & Walton: Violin & Viola Concertos; Maxim Vengerov
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CD Details

Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2003-04-08
Music Label: EMI Classics
Soundtracks:
  1. I. Moderato Con Moto-
  2. II. Vivace-Cadenza-
  3. III. Passacaglia: Andante Lento (Un Poco Meno Mosso)
  4. I. Andante Comodo
  5. II. Vivo Con Moto Preciso
  6. III. Allegro Moderato

Music reviews of Britten & Walton: Violin & Viola Concertos; Maxim Vengerov

Music Review: Vengerov shines in two compelling English concertos
Rating: 5 Stars

If EMI weren't a British-owned label, I doubt that two dyed-in-the-vodka Russians would have taken up Britten and Walton. How fortunate for us that they did. The Britten Violin Concerto is an original, engrossing work. The opening movement is mysterious and haunting, one of the greatest things from this period in Britten's career. Even though a prodigy, he was still searching for his unique voice in 1938. Without being able to name the specific influences -- Britten himself speaks of his revelatory encounter with the Berg concerto -- one feels that Britten is weaving about until he hits on strikingly original moments, such as the shadowy, tango-like plucked passage in the first movement. The Scherzo fall back too often on the generic modernist idiom typical of the era, a style more suited to Shostakovich or the bluff Walton (who disliked Britten's music) than his younger contemporary.

Still, the works gets under your skin and deserves the visibility that this recording and Vengerov in particular bring. re No doubt the soulful, elegiac finale appealed to his Russian sensibility -- it hews close to Shostakovich in mood and expresses the kind of anxious sorrow characteristic of the prewar period. Vengerov gives the concerto a searching performance, with sympathetic accompaniment from his musical godfather Rostropovich and wonderful sonics from EMI. You are reminded again and again that an artist with such gifts comes along once in a generation. Britten's adroitness is shown in the concerto many changes of mood, and when Vengerov arrives at the most inspired passages, he makes them sound like music of genius.

The Walton Viola Concerto is musically a safer, less original work. It's played and recorded much moe often, because of the scarcity of viola concertos. Purists may dislike Vengerov's fairly slow, ruminative first movement, and compared to the breathtaking tone of his violin, this viola sounds less striking. Even so, he brings his talent to bear with flowing expression and commitment. I don't think one should listen to all 64 min. of this CD at one sitting--the idioms are too similar in their free-form shape and wandering harmonies. Also, neither work is immediately easy to absorb. Repeated listening makes all the difference.

In all, a triumph for Vengerov, if a somewhat low-key one. I won't return often to the Walton, but his Britten is indispensable--it redeems a neglected, near-great work.

P.S. -- In 2008 the English violinist Daniel Hope released an even better version of the Britten, one that feels more "inside" the music, and which risks making unlovely sounds, as Vengerov never does. Hope finds a gripping kind of urgency and despration in this work; therefore his account leaps ahead of the field, I think.
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