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Edward Elgar, Violin Concerto [CD]

Thomas Zehetmair (violin) , Alice Coote (mezzo-soprano) , Hallé Orchestra , Sir Edward Elgar , Sir Mark Elder Audio CD
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Edward Elgar, Violin Concerto + Elgar The Kingdom Op.51 + Edward Elgar, The Dream of Gerontius
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Product details

  • Performer: Thomas Zehetmair (violin), Alice Coote (mezzo-soprano), Sir Mark Elder
  • Orchestra: Hallé Orchestra
  • Conductor: Sir Mark Elder
  • Composer: Sir Edward Elgar
  • Audio CD (1 Feb 2010)
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Format: CD
  • Label: Hallé
  • ASIN: B0036PUNH6
  • Other Editions: MP3 Download
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 35,754 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

1. Violin Concerto in B minor Op.61 - Thomas Zehetmair
2. Prelude, The Kingdom Op.51 - Halle
3. Prelude & Angel's Farewell, The Dream of Gerontius Op.38 - Alice Coote

Product Description

Review

Hard on the heels of Nikolaj Znaider's outstanding account of the Elgar ­concerto with Colin Davis and the ­Dresden Staatskapelle, released by RCA last month, comes another exceptional recording of the work, the latest addition to Mark Elder and the Hallé's Elgar series. The performances are very different: where Znaider's wonderfully secure, measured performance has a steely, ­virtuosic edge, Thomas Zehetmair's playing is more passionate and openly expressive. It takes more risks inter­pretatively, which occasionally don't come off, so there is an edge of danger. Zehetmair's approach is arguably closer to the heart of Elgar's deeply personal work than Znaider's, and though it is hard to choose between the two versions, the Hallé disc's two extra tracks might just tip the balance in its favour. Elder opens with a luminous account of the prelude to the oratorio The Kingdom, floating its 'New Faith' with transcendent beauty, and follows the concerto with an ­authentic rarity the arrangement with chorus that Elgar himself made of the Prelude and Angel's Farewell from The Dream of Gerontius, creating his own Prelude and Liebestod. --Andrew Clements, The Guardian

A towering performance of Elgar's Violin Concerto with Thomas Zehetmair, a soloist of fierce intelligence. Unlocking the work's volcanic emotions ...he certainly found the reflective tenderness. He and Elder's taut yet flexible orchestra were at one in the visionary poetry of the finale, making this a performance of exceptional detail happily one that will appear on the orchestra s own CD label. --The Sunday Telegraph

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars This one took more time... 13 Mar 2010
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
What I mean by my heading is that this recording took more time to reveal it's merits than other recordings of this work have. Having written a fulsome review of the recent Znaider recording I found myself slightly resenting this recording on first hearing. My mistake is that this performance takes more time to reveal it's beauties. There is no easy victory here!

The Violin playing here is not as 'beautiful' as on the Znaider recording and there are one or two moments where the ferocious double stopping does sound a little like 'scrunching celery'. However, the tremendous virtuosity in the other 98% of the playing more than compensates for this.

What I grew to love about this performance is that it doesn't hang around! At the risk of committing a heinous crime I'm going to suggest that the revered Menuhin/Composer recording can sound a little 'heavy going' at time. Others have fallen into this trap - not least Ida Haendel and that great Elgarian Sir Adrian Boult. Elder and his soloist keep the momentum going at all times without giving the impression of skating over the surface of what is a deeply felt composition.

The CD is worth having for the extras too. Hopefully, the Prelude to 'The Kingdom' will encourage others to listen to this under-rated score. Highly recommended.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars nearly the tops 3 Jan 2011
By Stephen TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I heard Zehetmair play this wonderful work a day or two before this recording was made. The live performance was breathtaking but challenging, with some quite rough intonation and intense commitment. The CD is better, in the sense that it can be heard over and over (which the live performance probably couldn't). Great stuff.

These things are subjective but my order for this concerto (of which I own over 30 versions on CD) is 1. Sammons 1929 (more or less definitive); then of the excellent set of versions in modern sound 2. James Ehnes 3. Zehetmair 4. Gil Shaham.
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Amazon.com: 3.0 out of 5 stars  3 reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Lovely and unusual fillers boost a reading of the Violin Cto. that isn't very memorable 9 Dec 2012
By Santa Fe Listener - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Audio CD
Sir Mark elder has undertaken a massive project to record a complete Elgar edition, and the installments I've heard have been committed, recorded in excellent sound (putting them ahead of classic Boult and Barbirolli recordings in at least one respect), and above criticism. but that's not the same as inspired, and the English are so dedicated to Elgar, their Wagner and Brahms rolled into one, that inspired recordings aren't hard to find. In this program we end with a touch of wagnerism, in that Elgar did an arrangement of the very beginning and end of The Dream of Gerontius much as Wagner arranged the Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan for concert use. We also get the orchestral prelude to a much less well known oratorio,The Kingdom, so the Violin Cto. is bookended by two rarities.

It was brave to bypass British violinists to ask an Austrian, Thomas Zehetmair, to record the concerto, but he is familiar to UK audiences as conductor of the Northern Sinfonia, based initially in Newcastle upon Tyne, and currently in Gateshead. I am an admirer of Zehetmair, a complete musician whose playing is always personal and interesting. for that reason alone he makes a good choice a soloist, and his light, silvery approach falls gracefully on the ear - he avoids making the score sound over-stuffed and imperial. I suppose that to an Elgar devotee, nursed on three classic Menuhin recordings or a fan of Kennedy's wow-factor showmanship, Zehetmair might seem to underplay the concerto. However, I appreciated his fresh take, which I'd put on a par with Hilary Hahn's on DG.

The drawback is that the Elgar Violin Concerto is symphonic in scale, like the Brahms, and the grand orchestration makes Zehetmair sound a bit small and alone. Elder's conducting is also too straight-ahead. Elgar's writing is always pictorial, even when there's no expressed program, and it needs to create its own expansive landscape, full of vistas and robust activity. for a reading that brings orchestra and soloist together in a sumptuous way, I'd recommend Nikolaj Znaider and sir Colin Davis with a glorious Dresden Staatskapelle on BMG. For the most inspired Menuhin reading, I'd choose a live performance on BBC Legends with Boult - theirs is certainly the most moving account I've ever heard. You learn immediately what it means to "speak Elgar."

Despite the appealing fillers - with Alice Coote singing a lovely Angel's Farewell from Gerontius, minus the chorus - the main work on this CD isn't very memorable.
2.0 out of 5 stars Oh well. 15 Mar 2013
By Gail E. Miller - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Th violin is barely heard. The orchestra can be very loud when it wants to m but the violin is always muffled.
4 of 12 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Elgar violin concerto 13 Nov 2010
By Rudolf Hammermeister - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
The performance of the concerto is very good, but the sound is not great, and considerably less good than for the two other works on this disc, which is curious.
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