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Steinberg: Violin Concerto, Symphony No. 4 - Levitin, Yates

Steinberg: Violin Concerto, Symphony No. 4 - Levitin, Yates

Dutton  CDLX 7341

Stereo/Multichannel Hybrid

Classical - Orchestral


Steinberg: Violin Concerto, Op. 37, Symphony No. 4, Op. 24 'Turksib'

Sergei Levitin (violin)
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Martin Yates (conductor)


Maximilian Steinberg was a pupil – and son-in-law – of Rimsky-Korsakov in pre-Revolutionary Russia, exhibiting all the orchestral and lyrical characteristics one might expect of such a heritage. (Steinberg himself would later be a teacher of Shostakovich.) The Turksib Symphony – his fourth – completed in 1933, celebrates the building and completion of the Turkestan-Siberia Railway. Using Kazakh folk melodies and in four richly scored movements, it is an inspiring discovery. Contrastingly, Steinberg’s final work, the post-war Violin Concerto, has a valedictory and autumnal feeling, and soloist Sergey Levitin encompasses the virtuosic writing with complete authority while finding the music’s passionate and romantic manner.

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Comment by hiredfox - October 17, 2017 (1 of 1)

An excellent recording with the Violin Concerto as the stand out piece played superbly by Sergei Levitin. It is a lusciously romantic work that will captivate the hearts of most listeners and make it a firm favourite at least amongst collectors if not in the core repertoire of classical music. What astounds is that this work has remained virtually unknown for so long? A must buy for the romantics amongst us.

The 4th Symphony is a dogged work meeting approved Soviet Socialist-Realism principles applied to music in the wake of Stalin's Second Revolution. The composer stayed at home when others left. The work celebrates the building and completion of the Turkestan-Siberia railway in 1931, a project conceived in the 1880's! Each of the four movement bears a descriptive title, e.g., "the great struggle against the elements"; "the immense desert spaces" and so on - you soon get the picture...

Although based on Kazakh folk tunes this listener found the work to be too literal, too unemotional and very tedious; not unlike some of the works of Reinhold Glière. For most listeners it will remain stationary in the sidings for long periods.

I applaud Dutton Epoch for their efforts in bringing often unknown repertory to the attention of a wider audience and they will be fully aware of how risky such a strategy can be. In this example the chances are that most listeners would never have had the opportunity to hear these obscure compositions but it has paid off for them if only because they may have unearthed a nugget in the Violin Concerto; for that piece alone you should turn away for once from your own principles of capitalist realism.