Ginette Neveu, John Barbirolli - Sibelius: Violin Concerto, Symphony No. 2 (2002)

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Ginette Neveu, John Barbirolli - Sibelius: Violin Concerto, Symphony No. 2 (2002)

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This is one of the mere handful of great recordings of the Sibelius violin concerto. Not that there aren't many contestants in the field; in fact, it seems that almost every modern violin virtuoso wants to record the Sibelius, and perhaps this isn't surprising, since it's one of the Big Five (along with the Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, and Tchaikovsky) major violin concertos. But it hasn't always been so. For years after its disastrous premiere (Helsinki, 1904, then revised, second premiere Berlin, 1905), this concerto languished, was considered so intimidating, so bristling with technical difficulties as to be almost unplayable, was avoided by most violinists, and for years Heifetz virtually owned the piece, for he championed it and was its foremost exponent.
Most of the recordings of it miss the boat, seeing it as a vehicle for flashy virtuosic display in the first and third movements and for overripe sentimental romanticism in the second (not the way to play this piece, which is made of sterner stuff) and never really understanding the peculiar Sibelius idiom, never quite coming to grips with, getting under the skin of, this magnificent, original, idiosyncratic concerto. There are only two great historical recordings of it: this one (1946, EMI), and the Heifetz, Beecham, London Philarmonic version of 1935 (also EMI). Indeed, for my money there are only two more great recordings of it since: the stereo Heifetz, Hendl, Chicago version on RCA from around 1960 (of which the Penguin Guide to Compact Discs rightly says that it "set the standard by which all other versions have come to be judged"), and a more obscure recording from about 1980, also on RCA, by a little-known young American violinist, Dylana Jensen, with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy, a riveting, unforgettable performance. If you have these four recordings, you have the cream of the crop of the many recordings of this concerto.
Ginette Neveu (1919-1949) was, with Kathleen Ferrier and Dinu Lipatti, one of the tragic musical figures of the immediate postwar period. All were roughly contemporaries; all were exceptional musicians of major achievement and even greater promise; all enjoyed all-too-brief postwar careers and died young at the peak of their powers shortly after the war. Neveu was French, born in Paris, a child prodigy who appeared with the Colonne Orchestra at the age of 7, and studied at the Paris Conservatory and with Carl Flesch. She won the International Wieniawski Violin Competition in 1935, beating out such competitors as David Oistrakh, Henry Temianka, and Ida Haendel. She spent the war years in France, studying, extending her repertoire, and polishing her technique. From 1945 to her tragic death in 1949 in a plane crash at the age of 30, she enjoyed a short major international career. Walter Legge of EMI heard her in London in 1945 and immediately signed her up to make this studio recording of the Sibelius concerto (which was followed by a splendid Brahms concerto for EMI, also available on a newly remastered Dutton CD). In the words of the New Everyman Dictionary of Music, Neveu "won the highest reputation for virtuosity and passionate musicality," and you hear both in her Sibelius concerto. Her eloquent playing here has a rapt, rarefied intensity; she has the measure of this concerto and understands its idiom; she plays it like it's in her bones. Susskind (Legge's "house conductor" at the time) and the Philharmonia are less inspired, more conventional collaborators; tempos are leisurely, and the newly formed orchestra, its glory years ahead, isn't yet the precision ensemble it became and occasionally sounds somewhat raw.
As to the second work on this CD, Barbirolli's 1940 version of the Sibelius Second Symphony (he recorded this symphony several times) with the New York Philharmonic, I find it an interesting but eccentric account, not one I'd care to live with: it has some compelling moments, but it is very fast, rushed and hard-driven in a way that will sound strange to most ears accustomed to the way this symphony has been played for the past fifty years. It sounds as if the young Barbirolli–who had taken over the NY Philarmonic from Toscanini and was rather in Toscanini's shadow, sometimes compared unfavorably to Toscanini–is here trying to outdo the Maestro in the matter of fast, hard-driven tempos and whipped-up excitement. I keep saying "Slow down! Where's the fire? Let the music breathe" to myself as I'm listening to it. If an impetuous, high-tension, "urgent" reading of the Sibelius Second sounds like your cup of tea, this may be for you.
Dutton Labs, in particular Michael Dutton, who has done the remastering of both works for this CD, should be commended for first-class work: for 1946 and 1940 originals, the sound here is surprisingly full, vivid, non-fatiguing and pleasurable. This is one historical CD that is immediately accessible.

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Ginette Neveu, John Barbirolli - Sibelius: Violin Concerto, Symphony No. 2 (2002)

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