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Reviews:
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The Violin Concerto came after Schelomo and the Suite Hébraïque. It was premiered by Szigeti in 938 with the Cleveland Orchestra under Mitropoulos. The work was slow in the writing. Its earliest beginning came from a phrase that Bloch wrote down when studying native American music in New Mexico. In 1909 Bloch had been conductor for the young Szigeti in a performance of the Mendelssohn concerto - surely being reminisced at 13:58 in the first movement of this recording of the concerto. Szigeti became a celebrity champion of Bloch's music and recorded the Violin Concerto with Munch and the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra in 1939. This has been widely reissued on CD. It can be heard on Pearl GEMM9938, Symposium 1226, Lys and more accessibly on Naxos 8.110973 coupled with the magical Prokofiev First Concerto (Beecham). There are two live Szigeti performances from 1939, one with Mengelberg (Music & Arts) and another with Beecham and the LPO which was so far only appeared on Beecham Society LP WSA-5. Thanks to Mark Obert-Thorn and others on the r.m.c.r. newsgroup for this discographical information.
Lefkowitz is up against various alternative recordings. Roman Totenberg (one of Lefkowitz's teachers) produced a fine version in 1960 although the Vanguard reissue is now no longer available. Lefkowitz is good at the tense quicksilver of Bloch's shifting moods. There is I think more aggression in Totenberg's version even though the orchestral climaxes aer better, though not ideally, handled by Laurel. Intriguing that in the finale 6:10 Bloch shows that he has heard Szymanowsky's First Violin Concerto.
Speaking from memory Menuhin's EMI Classics recording, l acked fire and grip. This is something that could never be said of Lefkowitz's way with the splendidly flammable suites 1 and 2. These will positively knock listeners odd their seats such is their magnificent forcefulness. They are not at all ceerbral works. The two suites were written to Menuhin's commission in 1957 at Agate Beach, Oregon and the wildness of that coastline seems to blend with a luminous, even fierce, Bachman purity.
The recording of the Concerto is the handiwork of Anthony Hodgson and Bob Auger. It shows a wonderful front-to-back depth, never so vividly registered as in the first movement at 2.24. The analogue recording is full of resonant detail and has an agreeable warmth that stays the right side of blurring the focus. That said, the big brassy statements in the first and last movement are not really gritty enough. The recording venue's ambience is palpable in the silence that follows the end of the first movement. The violin overall is given a Heifetz balance with a very strong slightly left-hand speaker presence. As for timbre the violin has a caramel viscosity - splendidly lithe without being glutinous. Lefkowitz makes the instrument dance as it should in the finale (3:02) momentarily recalling Rozsa's warm Hungarian evenings.
Herschel Burke Gilbert's Laurel Label (now under the direction of John Gilbert) has done more than any other for Bloch. Recordings issued by them during the vinyl era are steadily being reissued on CD. We impatiently await the Pro Arte Quartet's box of the five quartets (LR852-CD). Meantime this disc though not perfect offers many rewards and good sound. Ther's no holds barred playing from Lefkowitz who is well inside the Bloch idiom.
Rob Barnett - from www.musicweb-international.com
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BLOCH Violin Concerto. Suites for solo Violin: No.1; No. 2 - Mischa Lefkowitz (vn); Paul Freeman, cond; London PO - LAUREL LR-834, analog (51:46)
Mischa Lefkowitz recorded Bloch's Violin Concerto more than two decades ago in All Saints Cathedral in London; Laurel Records released it in 1985 as LP-134, in which format Walter Simmons reviewed it in 9:5 (Laurel filled out that recording with Sarasate's Introduction and Tarantella and Prokofiev's Solo Violin Sonata). Although the earlier headnote identified the recording mode as digital, the notes now refer to it as analog, specifying 1/4" analog tape. Simmons mentioned recordings by Joseph Szigeti (with Munch, now available on Andante and Naxos), Roman Totenberg, and Yehudi Menuhin, but considered Lefkowitz's interpretation “the most incisive and tightly focused...of all” and the recording superior to the others, while deeming Paul Freeman's support adequate.
Szigeti may have had a strong link to the composer, yet he may not seem to some to play the concerto as though it had been delivered with the tablets on Mount Sinai--as Lefkowitz does. Discussion of this work often makes a great deal of the New Mexico Indian origin of the first movement's main theme, which recurs in the finale. But since the Concerto could be almost as easily taken as a Hebraic theme, which recurs in the finale. But since the Concerto could be almost as easily taken as a Hebraic Rhapsody, Lefkowitz's fiery deliverances don't sound at all out of place. The The engineers focused their attention on the soloist and, at times, he seems to be playing a solo with the orchestra in the background--but what a solo! (Bloch, himself a violinist (he had studied with Ysaÿe), knew how to extract striking sonorities--novel yet idiomatic--from violin, viola, and cello; and so does Lefkowitz). Its vigor and intensity, coupled with the brilliance of Lefkowitz's technique--these recall Heifetz's performance of Castelnuovo-Tedesco's Concerto, “The Prophets”--suggest what a wonderful vehicle this Concerto might make for just the right kind of virtuoso; and clearly Lefkowitz is that kind of virtuoso. But his performance draws attention to the work as well as to himself. The recorded sound strains to capture the highest dynamic levels, and both violin and orchestra occasionally sound pretty tubby. Nevertheless, Lefkowitz's white-hot performance should still appeal to aficionados of violin literature and of Bloch, and even to general listeners, if not to audiophiles.
Lefkowitz recorded the suites in 1989, in the Gilbert Recording Studio, using “similar equipment”. The notes make no mention of their release, and a cursory search of Schwann catalogs for several relevant years revealed no entry. There's plenty of reverberation and the recorded sound seems abrasibely raw at times; but lefkowitz plays these brief works (both last fewer than 10 minutes) with a dedication matching his élan in the Concerto (although in the Suites, he himself sounds abrasively raw at times). Taken as e whole, the collection transcends the sum of its parts, providing attractive readings of all these pieces, all in one place. Recommended, then, for the performances and for the repertoire, both generally and to specialists.
Robert Maxham - FANFARE - jul/ago 2006 - pag.72
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