Korngold: Violin Concerto and Bernstein: Serenade

Absolutely splendid playing from Liza Ferschtman…The Korngold…receives a fairly heart-on-sleeve interpretation, with extrovert and energetic qualities to balance any hint of excessive swoop…Ferschtman’s... — BBC Music Magazine, May 2018, More…

Release Date: 16th Mar 2018
Catalogue No: CC72755
Label: Challenge Classics
Length: 58 minutes

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Korngold: Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35

26:40

$4.50

$6.30

$7.80

Prague Symphony Orchestra
Jirí Malát
Liza Ferschtman

I. Moderato nobile

10:01

$1.50

$2.10

$2.60

II. Romanze

8:47

$1.50

$2.10

$2.60

III. Allegro assai vivace

7:52

$1.50

$2.10

$2.60

Bernstein: Serenade (after Plato's 'Symposium')

31:37

$7.00

$9.80

$12.20

Het Gelders Orkest
Christian Vasquez
Liza Ferschtman

I. Phaedrus: Pausanias. Lento and allegro

7:02

$1.50

$2.10

$2.60

II. Aristophanes. Allegretto

4:25

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

III. Eryximachus. Presto

1:31

$1.00

$1.40

$1.75

IV. Agathon. Adagio

7:16

$1.50

$2.10

$2.60

V. Socrates: Alcibiades. Molto tenuto and allegro molto vivace)

11:23

$2.00

$2.80

$3.50

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Interview, Liza Ferschtman on Bernstein and Korngold

6th March 2018

The Dutch violinist talks to Katherine about her new recording of two American works for violin and orchestra, out on Challenge Classics later this month.

Read our exclusive interview with Liza Ferschtman about the recording here.

Korngold’s Violin Concerto was completed in 1945. This is a beautiful, late Romantic work that harks back clearly to Korngold's earlier compositional style, when he was a younger man living in Vienna. But had he really turned his back on film music he was used to compose in America? Every movement of the Concerto is scattered with fragments from a range of his film scores. The Violin Concerto was a huge success at its premiere, not least due to the performance by Jascha Heifetz as soloist.

The 1950s, a period when Korngold's career and indeed his life were drawing to a close, were a most productive time for Leonard Bernstein. He was achieving major successes on Broadway with his musicals. The Serenade for violin, strings, harp and percussion had its premiere in Venice in 1954. There were two factors behind the composition. He had accepted a commission from the Koussevitzky Foundation. Also, he had long been promising a new piece for his close friend, the violinist Isaac Stern. Both of these commitments coincided in the Serenade, an extremely lyrical, five-movement work, akin to a violin concerto.

Reviews

May 2018

Absolutely splendid playing from Liza Ferschtman…The Korngold…receives a fairly heart-on-sleeve interpretation, with extrovert and energetic qualities to balance any hint of excessive swoop…Ferschtman’s sound is big and rich, full of personality and fizzing with ideas, but she’s also capable of that special trick of melting while maintaining poise and elegance.

Classical Music May 2018

The recording of this release (SACD Surround) is simply superb, supporting the lushness of Korngold’s 1945 violin concerto perfectly. The achievement here is that Ferschtman does not milk the melodies, letting them speak for themselves, eloquently, while the Prague orchestra is on knife-edge form. The Bernstein is that composer’s reactions to love as reflected in Plato’s Symposium. The five ‘viewpoints’ – Phaedrus, Aristophanes, Eryximachus, Agathon and Socrates – offer a varied journey. Fertschman is massively characterful in ‘Aristophanes’. The power of the final two movements is remarkable.

Korngold: Violin Concerto and Bernstein: Serenade

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Interview, Liza Ferschtman on Bernstein and Korngold