Post by erik on Feb 10, 2024 19:23:39 GMT -5
One of America's great violinists, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, is in the Classical Albums Spotlight with a 1987 recording that combines one of the great violin concertos of all time with three one-movement works for violin and orchestra that came from France.
Mendelssohn: VIOLIN CONCERTO IN E MINOR, OP. 64
Saint-Saens: HAVANISE, OP. 83
Saint-Saens: INTRODUCTION AND RONDO CAPRICCIOSO, OP. 28
Massenet: MEDITATION/FROM “THAIS”
Violin: NADJA SALERNO-SONNENBERG
New York Chamber Symphony Orchestra/GERARD SCHWARZ (EMI)
Along with the big D Major works in this form by Beethoven, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky, Felix Mendelssohn’s E Minor Violin Concerto is one of the most popular and most often-performed of its type in the repertoire. Although Mendelssohn had an idea for this concerto in mind at the age of 29, it would be another six years to finish it. He had composed this challenging concerto for lifelong friend and violinist Ferdinand David, from whom he sought advice as to what needed to go into the work; and by 1845, it was performed to a hugely receptive audience in Leipzig, with the composer conducting the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and David, the orchestra’s concertmaster, serving as soloist. Since that time, it has not once fallen out of favor with violinists everywhere, despite the huge challenges of its scherzo-like finale.
Camille Saint-Saens himself had composed three full-blown concertos for the violin (the Third, in B Minor, being the most popular of them) during his lifetime, but he also composed two other shorter works for violin and orchestra that many a violinist likes to take the cudgel up on. The first of these, the 1863 “Introduction And Rondo Capriccioso”, was one he composed as a favor to the great Spanish violinist and composer Pablo de Sarasate; and per the violinist’s request, it employs a great deal of Spanish music idioms. Then in 1886, Saint-Saens composed “Havanaise” for violinist Diax Albertini; as could be indicated by its title, it employs both Spanish and Cuban rhythms, and its violin solo parts are as challenging as anything found in the more standard three-movement concerto form.
Saint-Saens’ fellow Frenchman Jules Massenet is remembered principally for his 1894 opera “Thais”, set in the fourth century and concerning itself with a monk named Athanael who falls in love with the title character, the most famous courtesan in the city of Alexandria, Egypt. The opera’s “love theme”, as it were, is the Meditation, scored for harp, orchestra, and solo violin, and, even though it is a very short work at seven and a half minutes in length, it is among the most heart-tugging works for violin and orchestra ever composed.
All four of these works are given sterling performances on this 1987 EMI recording in which one of America’s greatest violinists, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, is joined by the New York Chamber Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Gerard Schwarz. Although the orchestra itself is no longer in existence now, it more than ably assists Ms. Salerno-Sonnenberg on not only the three single-movement violin works, but on the ultra-popular Mendelssohn concerto, making it a prime listening choice.
Mendelssohn: VIOLIN CONCERTO IN E MINOR, OP. 64
Saint-Saens: HAVANISE, OP. 83
Saint-Saens: INTRODUCTION AND RONDO CAPRICCIOSO, OP. 28
Massenet: MEDITATION/FROM “THAIS”
Violin: NADJA SALERNO-SONNENBERG
New York Chamber Symphony Orchestra/GERARD SCHWARZ (EMI)
Along with the big D Major works in this form by Beethoven, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky, Felix Mendelssohn’s E Minor Violin Concerto is one of the most popular and most often-performed of its type in the repertoire. Although Mendelssohn had an idea for this concerto in mind at the age of 29, it would be another six years to finish it. He had composed this challenging concerto for lifelong friend and violinist Ferdinand David, from whom he sought advice as to what needed to go into the work; and by 1845, it was performed to a hugely receptive audience in Leipzig, with the composer conducting the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and David, the orchestra’s concertmaster, serving as soloist. Since that time, it has not once fallen out of favor with violinists everywhere, despite the huge challenges of its scherzo-like finale.
Camille Saint-Saens himself had composed three full-blown concertos for the violin (the Third, in B Minor, being the most popular of them) during his lifetime, but he also composed two other shorter works for violin and orchestra that many a violinist likes to take the cudgel up on. The first of these, the 1863 “Introduction And Rondo Capriccioso”, was one he composed as a favor to the great Spanish violinist and composer Pablo de Sarasate; and per the violinist’s request, it employs a great deal of Spanish music idioms. Then in 1886, Saint-Saens composed “Havanaise” for violinist Diax Albertini; as could be indicated by its title, it employs both Spanish and Cuban rhythms, and its violin solo parts are as challenging as anything found in the more standard three-movement concerto form.
Saint-Saens’ fellow Frenchman Jules Massenet is remembered principally for his 1894 opera “Thais”, set in the fourth century and concerning itself with a monk named Athanael who falls in love with the title character, the most famous courtesan in the city of Alexandria, Egypt. The opera’s “love theme”, as it were, is the Meditation, scored for harp, orchestra, and solo violin, and, even though it is a very short work at seven and a half minutes in length, it is among the most heart-tugging works for violin and orchestra ever composed.
All four of these works are given sterling performances on this 1987 EMI recording in which one of America’s greatest violinists, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, is joined by the New York Chamber Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Gerard Schwarz. Although the orchestra itself is no longer in existence now, it more than ably assists Ms. Salerno-Sonnenberg on not only the three single-movement violin works, but on the ultra-popular Mendelssohn concerto, making it a prime listening choice.