Customer Reviews

Glazunov: Violin Concerto; Meditation; The Seasons

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Glazunov is an interesting bridge from earlier Tchaikovsky and his teacher Rimsky-Korszakov to the later Stravinsky and Prokofiev. The Concerto is definitely in a late Russian romantic style that sounds almost like golden age movie music to my ears. It has some very technically challenging parts for the soloist which the highly-skilled and always thoughtful Aaron Rosand makes sound easy as usual, and the piece is quirky enough to be interesting, novel and memorable. Glazunov's orchestrations through these works exemplify the masterful Russian school.

The Seasons ballet suite is very cleanly styled almost to the point of being classical in spirit. I find it less thickly romantic or saccherine than Tchaikovsky's ballet pieces, which Glazunov should owe much to but seemingly doesn't. Both of the major pieces on this disc, the Violin Concerto and Les Saisons ballet suite can easily stand on their own as outstanding works. Having both together along with Rosand and the Philharmonic performing the brief Meditations make this a disc worthy of note and recommendation.

Sound and performances from Rosand and the Malaysian Philharmonic are excellent throughout. Aaron Rosand is one of the best violinsts most people have never heard of. The Malaysian Philharmonic's performances under Kees Bakels are artful, pretty and fun. This is a world-class orchestra, well-led, and playing music they clearly enjoy performing. Late romantic would seem to be one of their strengths.

The Concerto and Meditation were engineered by the renowned Tony Faulker. Sound on the ballet suite is also excellent with clean reverberation and very realistic instrument sounds. Hopefully engineer Eleanor Thomason attained this high sound quality naturally and not through close-miking and artificial processing. Sound is excellent for a mainstream circa 2001 recording. Great work artists, engineers and Vox!

This was a slightly unusual pairing of Glazounov works - the Violin Concerto and Meditation often go together, but The Seasons ballet is...a ballet, which is naturally stand-alone. Aaron Rosand, an exponent of the Russian school of violin playing, submits a nice reading of the (all too brief) Glazounov Concerto. The best moments come in the first movement, where we hear Rosand's golden, glorious tone and the characteristic glow of his del Gesu instrument. The cadenza is fine, but the section bridging the cadenza and the third movement can kill a performance of this concerto if it isn't played with enough zest...Rosand plays it straight, hitting every note and nothing more. Overall it's a little stiff and there are a few critical places in the third movement where Rosand's technique falters, perhaps due to age.
Like most others, I have always been partial to Milstein's recording of this Concerto, as he gave some of the first performances of it with Glazounov conducting. Ida Haendel's early recording is splendid as well.
I heard Hilary Hahn play it live and actually it sounded a lot like this recording of Rosand's, in that it was just boring much of the time. "The Seasons" is an enjoyable listen; no comments except to say that Glazounov is an always-underrated and generally forgotten composer.