Customer Reviews

Favorite Violin Encores

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A delightful collection of shorter works for violin with piano accompaniment, some of them extremely familiar, others less so, but with Grumiaux's lyrical style (not flamboyant like Perlman's, but graceful and beautiful in an understated way), and fine accompaniment, the music on these 2 CDs is consistently excellent and can be listened to either consecutively or just a few pieces at a time. Well worth having.

Arthur Grumiaux (1921-1986) was never a technical daredevil and his playing has been described as being "for conoisseurs only." Indeed, his style was quite refined and his repertoire tended towards pieces that which suited his musical gifts. His Beethoven Concerto and Sonata recordings and performances are most definitely among the best ever done of those works. This large set of 30+ smaller pieces (with a couple larger ones thrown in) focuses on Grumiaux's ability to touch the listener and indeed there is a thread of imperturbable calmness that runs through this recording upon a casual listening. This discing on Philips came out around 1996, presumably to commemorate the 10th anniversary of his death.

I'll just touch on a few of the highlights of this 2 CD set. In all of them, we hear Grumiaux at his best - polished and radiant, with Istvan Hajdu as the competent piano partner for all of the numbers. The Paganini E major sonata is delightful and Grumiaux captures the sunny good humor of it. Ravel's Piece en Forme de Habanera is a tranquil little encore number and I could listen to Grumiaux playing it 20 times in a row if I had to. Just wonderful. The Mozart-Kreisler "Haffner Rondo" as well as the familiar Schon Rosmarin, Liebesfreud, and Liebesleid, are all splendid, and Grumiaux seizes the musical moments and beauty that Kreisler instilled in them when he wrote these pieces now almost 100 years ago. The Ponce-Heifetz Estrellita is fine too but lacks intensity, something that Grumiaux was sometimes criticized for. The larger pieces... I've never liked hearing Sarasate's larger violin works played with piano instead of orchestra, especially Ziegeunerweisen. Grumiaux gives it a fairly cautious reading that doesn't light any musical fires. Wieniawski's Souvenir de Moscou is excellent, and Grumiaux and Hadju's musical chemistry is obvious. The harmonics variation and final variation sparkle brightly. The somber Nigun from "Baal Shem" radiates Grumiaux's penchant for Bloch's music. The lone disappointment of this discing is the Ravel Tzigane. Grumiaux doesn't do it justice. Of the the dozens of recordings out there of the warhorse program number, this one is definitely one of the most padded and un-gypsy. The cadenza is almost completely devoid of momentum. The middle section lights no fires although it is a note-perfect reading. The final page starts slow, but then speeds up very quickly and grows to a ridiculous velocity, with the last notes played arco and with no zest (further, the last chord is not what is written in the score, and the final sound we hear is the piano, not the violin...BOO!!) But the bad recording of Tzigane doesn't decimate this disc of small violinistic gems, and a tribute to one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century.

My mom got this album (Philips record) 30 years ago.
Finally found PM3 download ver. in Amazon.com
Thanks to Amazon! You'll love this album.

Nice from Philips to have reissued this program of encores played by Arthur Grumiaux and his usual accompanist Istvan Hajdu on their budget "Duo" series. It was recorded on two occasions, ten years apart: in February 1972 (the whole of CD 1 and the first 8 tracks of CD 2) and December 1962 (the remainder of CD 2). I hear no sonic difference between both and if any, the 1962 recordings have a shade more presence. There are very few of the customary virtuoso showpieces (and they are concentrated in the 1962 recital as well). They are mostly salon music "par excellence": unassuming little trifles, many of them transcriptions of piano pieces or of Lieder (Schumann's Träumerei, Schubert's Ständchen, even Gounod's Ave Maria which is a "Meditation on Bach's 1st Prelude"), and Grumiaux plays them, may he be praised, tastefully and without a trace of mawkish sentimentality. So if you are fond of that kind of lightweight repertoire, this is a model of style and taste, and TT is over 75 minutes per disc.

In fact, NOT being so much into that kind of stuff, I borrowed this set from the library for the two substantial pieces it contains: Bloch's Nigun from Baal Sheem and Ravel's Tzigane.

Grumiaux' Nigun is fine, maybe a little too mellow and plaintive for the "fieramente" characterization that Bloch wrote at the beginning - but this is according to tradition, and the plaintiveness is appropriately Jewish - and Grumiaux rises to great intensity of despair, with always very pure tone. On the other hand I have mixed feelings about his Tzigane. His attack of the first phrase seems to announce an elegant but somewhat tame interpretation: he doesn't bite into the B like some others and plays with majestic tone - hardly appropriate for Ravel's homage to the Gipsy fiddlers. But it is only partly true. In fact, past the first bars, Grumiaux' introductory cadenza is a lesson of how a violinist just needs to play exactly what Ravel wrote, without needing to add (or subtract) anything, to convey exactly the required Gispsy character. Later, in the piano-accompanied second part, he demonstrates fine tempo flexibility and character - just try the delicious wailing schmaltz of his phrasing at 5:52 or the slow, hesitant gait with which he starts the coda at 9:13, only to accelerate to frenetic speed. On the other hand his harmonics are not always very pure-sounding (as at 5:33), there are times where I wished he had just a drop more of forward drive, and the way he tackles, or even skips some of the technical difficulties is likely to raise some eyebrows (try 5:15, or the pizz. played arco at 8:40). Istvan Hajdu isn't the greatest virtuoso either, and far from a perfect triller (4:45). Note the peculiar way in which he approaches his little solo at 6:39: despite the Allegro indication, he sets off very slowly, only to exercise a marked acceleration, anticipating some of the agogics that Ravel later ascribes to the violin.

Ultimately then there is more of Grumiaux the poet than Grumiaux the virtuoso.

I liked this CD. When Amazon had this music in total orchestral way, please notice me.
Sorry, my english is very bad.