Ruggiero Ricci, Sir Malcolm Sargent, Øivin Fjeldstad - Tchaikovsky, Sibelius: Violin Concertos (2002)

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Ruggiero Ricci, Sir Malcolm Sargent, Øivin Fjeldstad - Tchaikovsky, Sibelius: Violin Concertos (2002)

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Ricci’s recording of Sibelius’s Violin Concerto falls between Jascha Heifetz’s two (1935 and 1959) and straddles the demonic energy of the first and the icy mystery of the second. Decca’s engineers (Cyril Windebank and Gordon Parry, in this case) reproduce the sharp bite of the brass and clarity of the strings. They also project Ricci forward so as to capture the cleanness of his playing and the richness of his tone. Øivin Fjeldstad’s direction sounds taut and punchy, re-creating the dark, jagged landscape of Sibelius’s first movement. Only occasionally does Ricci slap his bow on the strings, a gesture that almost defines his musical personality. In the slow movement, his tone on the G string possesses the high tensile strength of Heifetz’s rather than lusher warmth. If in the final movement—and perhaps in the second as well—very occasional stray intonation might call attention to itself, in general the movement sounds as virtuosic as the title of the collection suggests (the final hair-raising page just about settles that) and certainly must have stood among the best and most electrifying versions of the work available at the time. (As I write, I have before me a poster that my father picked up after one of Ricci’s live performances of the Sibelius concerto, this one from January 14 and 15, 1964, but I don’t remember Ricci making so strong an impression in the work as he does here.)

Tully Potter mentions in his notes that Ricci thought Decca wanted another version of the Tchaikovsky concerto from him in 1961 (he had recorded the first in 1950 for Decca, with Malcolm Sargent and the New Symphony Orchestra, and would record a third in 1974, still again for Decca, with Jean Fournet) because it would sell. In the video Great Violinists of the Bell Telephone Hour , Michael Rabin, who played substantial chunks of the concerto so captivatingly for the 1954 movie Rhapsody , sounds washed out in the finale in comparison to Ricci’s version. In the first movement, Ricci himself doesn’t initially sound so rhapsodic as do Auer students Heifetz (any of the three versions from 1937, 1950—a less well-known personal favorite—and 1957), Nathan Milstein, and Mischa Elman, nor even so full-throated as Arthur Grumiaux in his first recording with Bogo Lescovic. Nevertheless, he plays Auer’s thirds electrifyingly in the cadenza and by the time he reaches the final pages of the first movement, he’s aglow. If Ricci’s version of the Canzonetta sounds a bit less urgent (even in the middle section) after the stormy conclusion of the first movement, the finale begins with a whirlwind. Here’s the Ricci from the video, crisp and compelling. As for Sibelius’s concerto, Decca’s engineers (here, Kenneth Wilkinson and Alan Reeve) provide an almost three-dimensional yet atmospheric setting for their soloist. The Sérénade mélancolique may not wail with Heifetz’s intensity, but it’s moving nonetheless, and Ricci plays the Scherzo with edgy energy.

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Ruggiero Ricci, Sir Malcolm Sargent, Øivin Fjeldstad - Tchaikovsky, Sibelius: Violin Concertos (2002)

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