Adams - Violin Concerto [CD]

Once upon a time Naxos was just a damn fine budget classical label. These days it issues discs by the rising stars of the classical music world which are as good as anything that the `Major' labels can come up with. So it is that this latest disc featuring the brilliant 18 year old Violinist Chloe Hanslip is released in a distinctive Naxos slipcase.

For the last few years fellow British 18 year old Nicola Benedetti has stolen the limelight, winning Young Musician of the Year in 2004 and releasing two CD's since. Now Chloe is back 4 years after her last release to reclaim our attention.

Is it possible to praise a CD to the skies and also express disappointment in it? I am now going to do both. This performance of John Adam's violin concerto is amazing and I will come back to it. But first to tracks 1, 2 and 3. John Corigliano's Chaconne from the Red Violin is as fine a piece of modern film music as you will hear, but the composer has now added 3 movements to it to produce `The Red Violin Concerto'. Why are we not treated to a performance of the full work here? The two works by film composer Franz Waxman are all very nice, a swift arrangement of George Enescu's Romanian Rhapsody No 1 and Wagner's Tristan and Isolde Theme which is given the full mid 20th century film score treatment. These are pleasant enough, but I am not sure what they are doing on the same disc as John Adams masterful and completely original contemporary violin concerto

And so to the main work. Within a minute or so it is clear than this is a classic, and indeed definitive recording of the work. This is not only due to Chloe's violin playing. Everything in this interpretation sounds right. I have been comparing it to the Nonesuch Records release which feature's Gideon Kramer as violinist with the composer wielding the baton. That performance sounds authoritative, but compared to this one is also sounds rather too dense. I have been looking forward to what Leonard Slatkin would do with this work since I saw him conducting John Adam's Chorus and Orchestra work Harmonium at the first concert of the 2001 Proms. There he brought an amazing lightness, sparkle and clarity to the work, really giving it wings and letting it fly, as it was born to do. He works the same magic here aided by some excellent sound engineering. This work is a study in perpetual motion, the perpetual motion of the violin line against a constant shifting scenery of orchestral accompaniment. Where the Nonesuch recording fuses all the layers of sound together Slatkin allows them to move freely over each other. He places the violin unapologetically in the foreground while the orchestra is resolved into several constantly changing layers of sound behind it. The effect is to balance clarity and richness in the interpretation so that the complex orchestration is illuminating rather than overwhelming. Placing the violin to the fore ensures that we hear every nuance that Chloe Hanslip brings to the score, and she gives her all. This is not a brilliant performance by a young musician. This is a performance by a brilliant musician full stop.

Considering the disc piece by piece I would rate the first three pieces between four and five stars. Despite some disappointment about the version of The Red Violin here and some misgivings as to the Waxman arrangements appearing in this program they are all extremely good performances. As far as the John Adams Violin Concerto is concerned this version really is something special and it has me wanting to give it an extra sixth star. I expect that this will make plenty of shortlists for CD of the year on the strength of this one work; the performance really is that good.

There must be something wrong with my ears. I have heard John Adams's wildly popular Violin Concerto numerous times, and it has already been recorded at least three other times. But I hear little in it that appeals to me; it does not touch me at all emotionally. I can admire the skill and the complexity of the writing, but for me it doesn't really add up to much. That said, Chloë Hanslip does a bang-up job of playing it and if you already know this piece and want a recording of it you could certainly do worse, particularly when you consider its budget price. Hanslip's playing may not be quite as intense as that of Gidon Kremer on the first recording of the work or that of Robert McDuffie on Telarc, but it comes a close second. Her tone is a bit more slender but also perhaps more lyrical than that of the other-mentioned violinists.

The more positive parts of this CD for me are the accompanying pieces. I had not heard any of John Corigliano's music for the movie 'The Red Violin' but know it was quite successful and that Joshua Bell's recording of the music from the movie was a best-seller. The present work, the 'Chaconne from The Red Violin', a sixteen-minute confection based on a recurring melody from the movie, is altogether more compelling for me and is played beautifully here.

The other two pieces on the CD are from the pen of the great movie composer, Franz Waxman. First is his arrangement for violin and orchestra of Enescu's Romanian Rhapsody No. 1. It is actually primarily music from the orchestral original's fast middle section, and Hanslip plays the fireworks with requisite heat and sparkle. Waxman's 'Tristan and Isolde Fantasia' is from the 1940s movie 'Humoresque' (a Jean Negulesco soap opera about a violinist, played by John Garfield, pursued by a rich woman, Joan Crawford). It is for violin and orchestra (with a prominent piano obbligato part played expertly here by Charles Owen) and is essentially a paraphrase of the love music from Wagner's opera. It accompanies the climax of the film and carries much of the emotional freight of that scene. Hanslip and the Royal Philharmonic under Leonard Slatkin do it proud.

My recommendation, then, is that if you already know you are fond of the Adams Violin Concerto and don't have a recording of it, this might be for you. If you are curious about the Adams but aren't familiar with it, its budget price might appeal, although this performance is not quite as effective as those by Kremer and McDuffie. I can recommend the CD for the other, briefer pieces (they do add up to about 30 minutes of music, though). One small caveat: on my system the orchestral sound seemed a bit recessed with the violin in a bright spotlight.

Scott Morrison