My Top 10 Violin Music

Prepared by David Chan for GTA AudioJanuary 16, 2012

*Prior consensus and permission by the GTAA group are mandatory, before this write-up will be copied or forwarded to any party outside the group.

Thank you!

ForewordThis is my first write-up on a series of ten that I aim to share my beloved music with

my friends in the GTAA.

Please bear with the fact that I never studied music, never played any instrument and have attended too few concerts. The lists of music are solely my personal favorites, and are not intended to be comprehensive in each category. My picks of the performance are also based on my own limited experience, and are not supposed to be the best of that piece. Therefore please treat them as notes of a music lover or an audiophile, rather than those of a music critic or a reviewer.

I know very little about chamber music; the quintets, quartets, trios, sonatas and the like and therefore I would shy away and leave it to the more capable hands and ears, like those of our dear friends, Lawrence and Len, to do justice for this rich music category.

I’ll consider my time and effort well spent if the write-ups will lure some of you to search and buy the music, and attract feedback on some other important titles as well as alternative recordings that I neglected to include.

I’ll also give higher priority to those recordings that are more accessible and affordable, and whenever possible show their CD equivalents. Please note that the CDs, in the original, first pressings that were made in West Germany like those by Decca and EMI back in the early 1980’s, can be worth as much as the LPs these days, if not more.

1. Beethoven – Violin ConcertoTo yours truly, the Big 5 violin concertos are the

Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn and Sibelius. All these five renowned composers wrote huge repertoires, but they all only wrote one violin concerto. (Well, Mendelssohn wrote two, but one is almost unknown and relatively inaccessible.)

My top pick is the Oistrakh/Cluytens, a grand and powerful performance supported by the wonderful vintage sound of EMI, highlighting the signature, golden string tone. Oistrakh’scandenza at the end of the 1st movement is nothing short of astounding as it sounds more like a quartet than a solo violin. Both the vinyl and the CD are expensive with the originals, early pressings. (I only have the CD.)

I also love the 2 Philips recordings by Szeryng and Krebbers, recorded with the same conductor, Haitink and the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. Both are relatively more accessible and affordable.

Everyone must listen to Heifetz on RCA Living Stereo, and please note the Toscanini style rhythm and discipline, under Munch’s baton, presented by the ‘caramel fudge’ sounding Boston Hall.

For sheer poetry, don’t miss the wonderful rapport between Szigeti and Walter, in an early EMI mono recording.

2. Lalo – Symphonie Espagnole

This may be controversial, in terms of the ranking, but it is so entertaining and I like it better than some other violin concertos.

My idol violinist, Henryk Szeryng, had recorded this piece on both Philips and RCA Living Stereo. I like the Philips disc better, and I’m sure some of you will disagree.

Here are my 3 reasons:- the Philips disc also carries a very wonderful

piece called Tzigane by Ravel, and with it you will get to know how rich and powerful Szeryng’sGuarneri del Gesu sounds.

- Despite the bigger, wider soundstage and dynamics, Szeryng sounds a little funny, or thin, to me on the RCA disc, very much unlike the typical Szeryng’s sound on Philips

- This is a disc that my dear friend who started me in audio gave me when I first visited him 30 years ago in Hong Kong. He said: “David, this is the King of the violins!”

It is easier, and cheaper, to get the LP as the Laloand Ravel titles on CD are under 2 separate releases.

3. Bach – Violin Concertos and Double Violin Concerto

Though typically Baroque, they summon a relaxed but focused state of mind when heard. The best time to play them is on a Sunday morning when we are home alone!

Images of Chinese Tai-chi always keep appearing in my mind during the 1st and 3rd movements of these 3 concertos, with multiple circles spinning to infinity. And the three 2nd movements, they are just tranquillizers.

Arthur Grumiaux owns these, on Philips, as his cool, aristocratic, music serving style fits in perfectly; as well, he played with Krebbers in the double violin concerto.

My 2nd vote goes to Szeryng, also on Philips. The pacing, phrasing, mood and feel are right on. The added HUGE bonus track called Air, adapted from one of Bach’s orchestral suites, clearly wins my heart with the later recording of the two that Szeryng recorded on Philips. In the double violin concerto, you can see Szeryngstanding to the left off centre, and Hasson sitting together with the other players, right off centre.

4. Brahms – Violin Concerto

When I started my classical music journey, I had naively wondered why this world would need Brahms as there was Beethoven. Obviously, I was wrong.

Brahms’ first symphony, first piano concerto, and in this context, his first and only violin concerto are all monumental. One needs a big system to do justice to these music.

Personally, I think Brahms must be dark, pathetic but gritty. Nobody can achieve all these better than Heifetz through his phrasing, tone and technique, all amazingly captured by the RCA recording engineers.

My other violin heroes Szeryng and Krebbers are all great on this piece but they both somehow lack the unexplainable touch of darkness of Brahms that Heifetz aptly delivered. Even Oistrakh, though supported by my favorite Klemperer, is of no exception.

5. Beethoven – Violin Sonata “Kreutzer”Of similar scope, size and depth, though with just the violin

and the piano, is the Kreutzer. The power of the 1st

and 3rd movements, sandwiching the beautiful, melodic and sweet 2nd movement, is more like a symphony than a violin sonata in stature.

My personal favorite is the Menuhin brother and sister collaboration on EMI/Capitol – grand, poetic and above all romantic. (My apologies for not being able to find the record for photo at ‘press time’.)

The Oistrakh/Oborin version is very, very “GRAND” but I somehow find it lacking in the ‘dialogue’ between the 2 instruments which is so important of this piece. The sound on Philips is however powerful, rich and full-bodied.

The Schneiderhan/Seemann disc on DGG is a wonderful collaboration, rich and dynamic. Yes, it’s mono but the sound is great.

Wonderful playing of this piece by Szigeti/Arrau on Vanguard too, but the LPs are expensive and rare.

The Perlman/Ashkenazy on Decca is worth checking out. Though lacking a bit of grandeur in the playing, the sound, ambience and image size perspective are all of reference quality, It’s a signature Kingsway Hall/Kenneth Wilkinson production.

6. Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn – Violin ConcertosI am sort of cheating here a bit to put two great

pieces into just one title due to the fact that for at least two suggestions below, they both come together in one LP.

These are two extremely different violin concertos. The Tchaikovsky carries a lot of fire, emotion and power, while the Mendelssohn is an easy-to-understand piece of romantic poetry.

Watch out for Heifetz’s speed in the 3rd movement of the Tchaikovsky. He just dominated and lifted the whole orchestra to match his pace and energy, despite the baton was supposed to be Reiner’s. His control over the soft passages in the 2nd movement is just surreal, with his bow barely touching the strings and yet the sound is so vivid. Nobody can play as ‘vividly soft’ as Heifetz. .

Milstein, in his DGG recording, made these two concertos good references for both music lovers and audiophiles, with some occasional fireworks working with Abbado and the VPO.

With Szeryng, you can’t go wrong with both the performance with Haitink/Concertgebouw and the sound on Philips.

These last two LPs are possibly the best deals in the world, two great concertos in one record!

7. Sibelius – Violin Concerto

Heifetz owns this. He has both the fire and passion required by the music. His recording on RCA Living Stereo is simply definitive, it has the grandeur of the Great White North, punctuated with occasional chills of the mass upper strings.

Honor roll: • Ricci/Fjeldstadt, Belkin/Ashkenazy and Kyung-

Wha Chung/Previn on Decca• Szeryng/Roschdestwensky on Philips(These are all great deals because of the content of

the release: the Ricci has 2 Violin Romances by Tchaikovsky, the Belkin has the enjoyable “Two Serious Melodies”; the Kyung-Wha Chung disc is even coupled with the Tchaikovsky concerto while the Szeryng disc the Prokofiev 2nd

concerto!)

8. Violin Romances – Various

Here are some of my favorites:- Saint-Saens: Introduction & Rondo Capriccioso- Sarasate: Zigeunerweisen- Wieniawski: Legende- Wieniawski: Romance (2nd movement of his

violin concerto)- Chausson: Poeme- Ravel: Tzigane (see aforementioned title #2)- Beethoven: 2 x violin romances

They are all violin music for life, poetic but with quite some swings in emotion and in sound.

I picked Ricci for his big, robust, muscular sounding Guaneri, Menuhin for his feminine, sweet, elegant sounding Stradivarius, and Grumiaux for his aristocratic and music-serving playing style.

9. Violin Pieces/Encores – VariousNumerous and uncountable. Somehow throughout our

lives we have heard quite a lot of them, during movies, TV commercials & TV soap operas, in shopping malls & private dinners, and on the radio…etc. They have crawled and stayed in our lives without us knowing.

My top pick goes to the 2-CD set by Grumiaux on Philips which is very much accessible and affordable. Nice, rich violin tone and great playing with the piano. It carries Zigeunerweisen and Tzigane, albeit with just the piano instead of an orchestra. A wonderful gift if you have children, or friends’ children learning the violin.

Also very much worth mentioning is the Aaron Rosanddisc on Vox with Sarasate violin pieces. Nice, entertaining music for sure but the real catch is the tone of Rosand’s Guaneri. Trust me: this is the biggest, boldest, fullest-bodied violin tone that you will ever hear recorded.

We can’t possibly do without Kreisler’s own compositions which we’ll never get tired of. In a mono RCA record we can see why Kreisler is such a legend, and a virtuoso who is, to say the least, at the same pinnacle as Heifetz.

Szeryng played the Kreisler pieces well too in a Philips release that is only available in UK pressing. It sounds way better than the Mercury CD release.

10. The 8 short pieces by Josef Hassid

Yes, one record takes up one spot, last but never the least. Actually, it’s just half a record of 8 short tracks of violin music accompanied by the piano.

Born in Poland in 1923, Hassid recorded these in 1940 when he was only 17, and died after brain surgery due to schizophrenia and depression, before he was even 22. These 8 short violin pieces were all he left with the world.

The legendary violin virtuoso Fritz Kreisler said: “ A fiddler like Heifetz is born every 100 years; one like Hassid every 200 years.”

You may think you are very familiar with these 8 tracks when you look at the titles but that’s just the beginning, as soon you’ll find out it may seem you have not heard them before. You will find the violin tone very colorful, brave and mature, the vibrato incredibly musical, and the phrasing just unique and fresh.

Just play Massenet/Meditation (Thais), a very popular piece, and you will find the phrasing so different but so involving, and the overall presentation so well structured. And that’s from a 17-year-old!

A career that was so ‘tragically brief’, but what a ‘meteoric flash’ Hassid created.

AppendixJust after I finished the first draft of this write-up, I

read an article written by Mr. KY Yeung in the January issue of Hong Kong’s Audiophile magazine.

Mr. Yeung is an experienced audiophile, music and equipment reviewer, as well as a cello player and teacher. Not dissimilar to Robert Parker on Bordeaux, Mr. Yeung has a great influence on the prices of used classical music records and CDs in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan.

Here is how he rated the recorded sound of the top 6 violin virtuosos, and his picks of the best titles, in the same order of appearance as in his article.

Please note that they are all based on CDs, and some very expensive Japanese early pressings. Yet, for us LP advocates, I think we can’t go wrong with the LP versions of his picks.

Henryk Szeryng- Bach: Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin (DGG)- Bach: 6 Violin sonatas with harpsichord (Philips)- Mozart: complete violin sonatas (Philips)- Beethoven: complete violin sonatas (Philips)- Beethoven: Violin concerto, Haitink (Philips)- Mozart: complete violin concertos (Philips)

David Oistrakh- Mozart: complete violin concertos, BPO (EMI)- Beethoven: Violin concerto, Cluytens (EMI)- Brahms: Violin concerto, Klemperer (EMI)- Beethoven: complete violin sonatas, Oborin

(Philips)- Bruch: Scottish Fantasy (Decca)

Arthur Grumiaux- Bach: Sonatas and Partitas (Philips)- Lalo: Symphonie Espagnole (Philips)

Jascha Heifetz- Sibelius: Violin Concerto (RCA Living Stereo)

Ruggiero Ricci- The Glory of Cremona - Violin Romances, Gamba (Decca)- Paganini: 24 Caprices

Salvatore Accardo- Rossini: 6 string sonatas (Philips)- Bruch: Violin concerto no. 1 (Philips)- Bruch: Scottish Fantasy (Philips)