Document

  1997
    April 1997
        Orchestral
                Wieniawski Concertos for Violin and Orchestra. Fantaisie brillante on “Faust”.

Wieniawski [Concerto] Concertos for Violin and Orchestra – No. 1 in F sharp minor, Op. 14; No. 2 in D minor, Op. 22. Fantaisie brillante on Themes from Gounod’s “Faust”, Op. 20. Marat Bisengaliev (vn); Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra / Antoni Wit.

Naxos (Super budget price) (CD) 8 553517 (70 minutes: DDD).

[Concerto] Concertos – selected comparison:

Shaham, LSO, Foster (12/91) (DG) 431 815-2GH

Wieniawski was only in his teens when he wrote the first of his two violin concertos, in Russia in the early 1850s. By the time he wrote his Second Concerto ten years later, his finesse as a composer was more developed, and rightly it is this later work, with its haunting melodies, that has remained more consistently in the repertory. Even so, this coupling of the two is apt and welcome on a super-budget Naxos issue, particularly with the Fantaisie brillante as a bonus.

I rather wish the works had been presented in a different (if less logical) order, when the violin’s first entry in No. 1 after the extended tutti (track 1, 3'10") is so edgy and steely. Wieniawski’s writing is largely to blame, for even the sweet-toned Gil Shaham cannot make it sound entirely grateful to the ear, and Marat Bisengaliev, born in Kazakhstan in 1962 and a prize-winner in Leipzig in 1988, quickly demonstrates his positive qualities. Though he is not as persuasive an interpreter as Shaham, rather less individual and imaginative in his phrasing, and less bold in bravura writing, the security of his technique is formidable, with a wide tonal range. His gentle half-tones in the slow movements of both works are strikingly beautiful, magically caught in the excellent Polish recording, which is even more vivid and better-balanced than that of DG for Shaham. Wit and the Polish National orchestra provide most sympathetic support.

In the 20-minute Fantaisie on themes from Faust Wieniawski shuffles the melodies skilfully, with Mephistopheles’s Calf of Gold aria providing a brilliant display passage. The choice of themes is not as obvious as it might be, with, for example, Siebel’s 6/8 couplets from Act 2 used prominently (“Lovely flowers of the dew” in the old Victorian translation). It makes a charming show-piece, if not one that bears much repetition, even in a performance as deftly pointed as this. An excellent bargain.

EG



		Wieniawski was only in his teens when he wrote the first of his two violin concertos, in Russia in the early 1850s. By the time he wrote his Second Concerto ten years later, his finesse as a composer was more developed, and rightly it is this later work, with its haunting melodies, that has remained more consistently in the repertory. Even so, this coupling of the two is apt and welcome on a super-budget Naxos issue, particularly with the Fantaisie brillante as a bonus.



		I rather wish the works had been presented in a different (if less logical) order, when the violin’s first entry in No. 1 after the extended tutti (track 1, 3'10") is so edgy and steely. Wieniawski’s writing is largely to blame, for even the sweet-toned Gil Shaham cannot make it sound entirely grateful to the ear, and Marat Bisengaliev, born in Kazakhstan in 1962 and a prize-winner in Leipzig in 1988, quickly demonstrates his positive qualities. Though he is not as persuasive an interpreter as Shaham, rather less individual and imaginative in his phrasing, and less bold in bravura writing, the security of his technique is formidable, with a wide tonal range. His gentle half-tones in the slow movements of both works are strikingly beautiful, magically caught in the excellent Polish recording, which is even more vivid and better-balanced than that of DG for Shaham. Wit and the Polish National orchestra provide most sympathetic support.



		In the 20-minute Fantaisie on themes from Faust Wieniawski shuffles the melodies skilfully, with Mephistopheles’s Calf of Gold aria providing a brilliant display passage. The choice of themes is not as obvious as it might be, with, for example, Siebel’s 6/8 couplets from Act 2 used prominently (“Lovely flowers of the dew” in the old Victorian translation). It makes a charming show-piece, if not one that bears much repetition, even in a performance as deftly pointed as this. An excellent bargain.