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Weinberg / Britten: Violin Concertos - Roth / Kutson

Weinberg / Britten: Violin Concertos - Roth / Kutson

Challenge Classics  CC 72627

Stereo/Multichannel Hybrid

Classical - Orchestral


Mieczyslaw Weinberg, Benjamin Britten: Violin Concertos

Linus Roth, violin
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, Berlin
Mikhel Kutson


Benjamin Britten is best known for his operas and vocal music. But amid his output are also eight concertos, only one of them famous. In 1938 he wrote his Piano Concerto. The concerto was his last major work before shipping himself and his partner Peter Pears to America where his first composition upon arrival was the Violin Concerto op.15. He finished it in September 1939. Of all his attempts at the concerto form, only the Violin Concerto has attained international fame and repertoire-status. Joan Chissell has called the Violin Concerto a work of “searching idiom, solid substance, and serious intent…” although “two of the three movements are completely dispassionate and extrovert in kind” without any “heart-felt appeal to the listener’s emotions [until the final passacaglia].” Britten took a good deal of the inspiration, if not outright quotes or technical means, for his concerto from Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto that Britten had heard in Barcelona in 1936.

Weinberg’s relationship with Shostakovich developed to a point where the closeness might even hurt his reputation when Weinberg is merely seen as a lesser Shostakovich, a darker, grim copy of the famous original. But Weinberg is neither lesser nor did he, though younger, copy Shostakovich any more than Shostakovich allowed himself to be influenced by Weinberg. The more one gets to know the ‘junior partner’ of this twosome, the richer a picture emerges. Talking about this 1959 concerto, written for and dedicated to Leonid Kogan, Shostakovich remarked that he was “very impressed with [this] magnificent work. And I choose my words advisedly”. As the work will hopefully, surely gain in popularity, posterity will at last be able to confirm that Shostakovich was not exaggerating. Weinberg composed a masterpiece anything—famous or not—the century has to offer in the genre. With its affirmative power and irresistible drive from the first percussion crack of the Allegro molto to the last diminishing violin chord (ushered out by the horns in triple-pianissimo), it has a real chance of breaking into the phalanx of repertoire pieces, while the non-stop virtuosity demanded of the soloist ought to delight and challenge any curious violinist.

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Review by Adrian Quanjer - March 15, 2014

Britten’s violin concerto has established itself firmly in the repertoire of a number of eminent violinists like James Ehnes, Frank Peter Zimmermann, and Janine Jansen. So far, this one is the only available version in Super Audio format.

Till now I had neither heard of Linus Roth, nor Mihkel Kütson. The Weinberg concerto was completely new to me, too. The short of it is that this disc is a ‘hit’ on all counts.

For those less familiar with Benjamin Britten’s 1939 violin concerto let me assure you that it is not an attempt to test the boundaries of existing musical patterns. Although some reminiscence of Alban Berg’s violin concerto is noticeable, it remains thoroughly tonal and melodious. That said it has all the hallmarks of Britten at his best.

Although composed in Canada, elements of what was happening at the same time in Europe seem to shine through. The second movement ‘vivace’ is supposed to be linked to the Spanish civil war. It has, indeed, similar uneasy belligerent outbursts and the use of castanets. The beginning of the final movement sounds like an outcry of ‘tristesse’ and injustice done by the Nazis at the start of the Second World War in Poland.

In comparison with Janine Jansen, Linus Roth does not disappoint. On the contrary. Always in control, and seemingly easy in the difficult 'Vivace', he is able to let his violin, the 1703 ‘Dancia” Stradivarius, weep and sing from pp to ff without a single scratch.

Britten’s violin concerto gets here what is its justified due: one of the ‘classics’ of the first half of the past century ‘containing the gist of its emotional history’. Roth's playing is, like the French say, “à couper le souffle”. A rising star? I for one wouldn't be surprised if we were to hear more of him.

Mihkel Kütson comes from Estonia, like the Järvi family, and won in 2006 the German Conductor’s Prize with the same orchestra like the one on this disc: the Deutsches Symphony-Orchester Berlin. His accompaniment is flawless.

With the Weinberg concerto, we move, as indicated in the excellent liner notes, into the realm of Roth’s special interest and apparent expertise (he recorded all his violin sonatas for Challenge Classics).

Weinberg fled from Poland to the East and became friends with Shostakovich, resulting in the fact that it is said that he lived in his shadow. But after hearing this concerto I have to distance myself from any such suggestion. Weinberg is very much his own man.

The concerto does not try, like Britten, to innovate. It, too, builds upon existing musical language. It is solid, rhythmical like Bach and Prokofiev rather than Shostakovich. It is ‘conclusive’ in the sense that it doesn’t ‘hang in the air’ as though he doesn’t really know where he is going. The two middle movements are, again like Prokofiev, full of lyrical melodies.

The outer movements are vivid and the final ‘Alegro risoluto’ has, indeed, a more Shostakovich-like flavor: marching soldiers and the use of a xylophone. However, it does not have so much the more banal elements Shostakovich often used as a kind of ‘reality shock’. And also, Weinberg’s more developed feeling for humour gets to the surface where his marching soldiers are suddenly waltzing before continuing in their ‘forced’ marching pace.

In Roth’s rendition, Weinberg’s violin concerto becomes a worthy addition to the catalogue of the 20th century.

With the exemplary recording of Challenge Classics, as we have by now gotten used to, the playing and the full bloom of the ‘Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin’ are both more than evident.

I could not find any weakness. Highly recommended without any reservation.

Copyright © 2014 Adrian Quanjer and HRAudio.net

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Comment by Michael Whitaker - March 3, 2018 (1 of 1)

One of the best sounding sacd recordings on the market 10/10