Britten: Violin Concerto in D minor Op. 15, etc.

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When artists of the stature of Vengerov and Rostropovich tackle English music it's often a revelation, and here's some of the most ravishing string-playing ever heard in either of these masterpieces.... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

Release Date: 14th May 2003
Catalogue No: 5575102
Label: Warner Classics
Length: 64 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

July 2003

Editor's Choice
Grammy Awards

46th Awards (2003)

Best Classical Instrumental Solo Recording

Britten: Violin Concerto in D minor Op. 15

Work length33:51

Album only

London Symphony Orchestra, Maxim Vengerov (violin)
Mstislav Rostropovich
Recorded: 2002-03-28
Recording Venue: 28 March 2002/No.1 Studio, Abbey Road

I Moderato con moto -

Track length10:05

Album only

II VIvace -

Track length8:24

$1.00

$1.30

III Passacaglia - Andante lento (un poco meno mosso)

Track length15:22

Album only

Walton: Viola Concerto

Work length30:34

Album only

Maxim Vengerov (musician), Maxim Vengerov (viola)
London Symphony Orchestra
Mstislav Rostropovich
Recorded: 2002-12-16
Recording Venue: 14 & 16 December 2002. Studio No.1 Abbey Road, London

I. Andante comodo

Track length9:47

$1.00

$1.30

II. Vivo, con molto preciso

Track length4:24

$1.00

$1.30

III. Allegro moderato

Track length16:23

Album only

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Reviews

2010

When artists of the stature of Vengerov and Rostropovich tackle English music it's often a revelation, and here's some of the most ravishing string-playing ever heard in either of these masterpieces. But these readings don't always follow convention, let alone metronome markings, and there's at least one choice of tempo that may have traditionalists spluttering in protest.
As you might expect with Rostropovich as conductor, the Britten is the less controversial of the two readings. The soloist's first entry over crisply sprung ostinato repetitions on bassoon and harp is marked dolcissimo, and the sweetness of Vengerov's playing in the high-lying cantilena is nothing short of heavenly. Here and throughout the work his free expressiveness, his use of rubato, far from sounding forced, reflects a seemingly spontaneous understanding, the creative insight of a major artist, rapt and intense. Rostropovich and the LSO match him in their warm expressiveness. The full-blooded recording not only covers the widest dynamic range throughout, but brings out many inner details in the orchestral writing normally obscured.
That's also true of the Russians' reading of the Walton Viola Concerto, with Vengerov evidently just as much at ease on the viola as the violin. Yet the timings alone will bear witness to the individuality of the reading. Vengerov is even more expansive than Kennedy or Bashmet, and the wonder is that, with Rostropovich in total sympathy, he sustains the slow tempo with rapt intensity, pure and tender with no hint of soupiness of the kind that mars the Kennedy version. Unconventional as it is, this is a reading that demands to be heard, even if Waltonians won't want it as their only choice.

Britten: Violin Concerto in D minor Op. 15, etc.

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