Brahms Violin Concerto

While motoring home today from Germany with a car full of Christmas tree, I heard this on the radio, in a version by Hilary Hahn with Nev and the ASMF. Undoubtedly this one:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005Q767/qid=1103654173/202-4601681-6159056


It sounded really good (I didn't get to hear it all), but the reviewers on Amazon didn't like the ASMF. I have only an old version on vinyl and I'd like a good CD one. How does the Hahn rate among you Romantics? Could I do better?

 

I've got this version (on SACD), amongst others - its pretty good I reckon. There are many good versions of this concerto to choose from, but this one is as good as any. Abbado/Shaham/BPO is another good one, superb recording of the Double concerto with it if that floats your boat.

The Stravinsky Violin Concerto is superb, a little gem in my opinion but may not be everyones cup of tea.... although I wonder what you Tones with your predeliction for baroque think of it as its kind of pastiche baroque.

 

Actually I think the Hilary Hahn is really good, as is the Shaham - in fact there are plenty of really good versions out there (Tasmin Little, F-P Zimmermann are good reliable middle-of-the-road versions, the stereo Heifetz has lots of soul although he doesn't exactly play immaculately, Anne-Sophie Mutter's earlier version with Karajan is nice enough if a little tame in the last movement, even Menuhin's stereo version is pretty decent) and the only ones I've heard that I'd be inclined to avoid are Joshua Bell who is just a bit too blandly well-mannered and Nigel Kennedy who is eccentrically ultra-slow.

 

I have the Shaham too and think it's great, although it's a very much sunnier interpretation than you usually get with Brahms (one of the reasons I got it). He does need to stop sniffing so loudly though. Not heard the Hahn in the Brahms, but doesn't she tend rather too much to the cool end of the sonic spectrum - but which was excellent for the Stravinsky when I heard her - and I do think tones would like that quite a lot (I have the Mullova recording, coupled with Bartok 2 - which I suspect he wouldn't!). And no it's not pastiche baroque...it's "neo-classical" (.....o.k. so that's a mis-nomer and it should really be called neo-Baroque )

Has Julia Fischer recorded it yet? I heard her play the Elgar last week (accompanied by Vanska - from whom I've never heard anything less than an excellent concert yet) and she was absolutely out-of-this-world, and I'd expect her to do a really good Brahms too. Ah - looks like she's only got around to Glazunov/Prokofiev/Khatchaturian on a Pentatone SACD so far: I'm sure her Brahms would be a real grab-you-by-the-ba..s job, no gentle soupy wheedling from her, so maybe she's giving herself time to develop her more tender side first. She's definitely one to watch out for.

 

I got Julia Fischer's disk mentioned above for about £6 off ebay a few weeks ago... absolutely superb! the Prokofiev 1st (by far the best concerto on the disk) is a stonking performance, as good as Shaham's with Previn.

Sounds great in SACD multi-channel too BTW... only slightly concenred by very prominent capturing of the bassoon in last movement but maybe that's how its meant to be.

 

My personal preferences are for David Oistrakh, although I only have an LP of that one, so I don't know if it's on CD. I've heard the Mutter and it is to me predictably soulless and rather too fast. Isaac Stern plays it rather well,
although he is occasionally a little erratic


this is my favourite

Although I'd wager this was also worth a listen Perlman

Both of these are on budget so I don't really think you can grumble with either. In fact I'm off to put the Oistrakh on now

 

Long time has passed since I heard this concerto, but I can confirm Lordsummits words about David Oistrakh, having heard
him (Oistrakh) perform the concerto live. Exellent warm tone, but never overdoing the romantic character of the music.
My preference in my youth was Stern, especially his apt gipsy
mood in the finale.
Grumiaux has made a very fine recording of this concerto too,
as far as I remember with van Beinum.

Venlig hilsen

 

Gentlemen, thank you all. I shall go looking and listening over Christmas - New Year.

 

I dug out an LP of Szerying playing with Monteaux conducting, this too was rather good, but I can't find a CD of it anywhere sadly

 

TESTAMENT just reissued the Szeryng/Monteux version.

 

Perhaps my favourite is Grummiaux. Beautiful and graceful, yet it is quite unmistakeably Brahms.

 

Welcome back, RdS!

 

Grumiaux also recorded an excellent account of Brahms's three Violin Sonatas, which are even better, richer than the Cto, musically.

 

Yes, but to day you can aquire these recordings only as part of an 11CD (!!) Philips box set with chambermusic of Brahms.

 

That's a shame. Grumiaux was a funny player though, I always felt that he lacked spontanaeity, everything was perfect and calculated to the nth degree. Very beautiful no doubt, but not that exciting. That's just my two pennorth though

 

Grumiaux has always been one of my favorites. He was surely a perfectionist, but not a cold perfectionist, always in service of the human expression.

 

Have you heard Szigeti play it, that is a wonderful performance. There are a couple of CD's about with him playing it. Well worth seeking out. One in particular with the Halle springs to mind

 

I only know Szigeti from Bartoks Contrasts (with Bartok himself and Goodman) as well as from the 5.th Brandenburg with Casals(the old recording from 1952 with Eugene Istomin on piano). I might well believe, that his rendering of the Brahms concerto could be fine. Do you think of the recording with Beecham, recently re-released by Naxos?

 

This one I think. It's a few years since I heard it, but Szigeti is always a most musical player

Szigeti Brahms

 

Thanks. It is out of sale at Amazon UK (your link), but I will try elsewhere.