Korngold: Violin Concerto / Schauspiel Overture / Much Ado About Nothing

Philippe Quint (Artist), Korngold (Composer), Carlos Miguel Prieto (Conductor), Orquesta Sinfonica De Mineria (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Orquesta Sinfonica De Mineria
• Conductor: Carlos Miguel Prieto
• Composer: Korngold
• Audio CD (June 30, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Naxos
• ASIN: B0027DQHI2
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #92,867 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Fanfare, Robert Maxham, Nov/Dec 2009

Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Violin Concerto once seemed the almost exclusive domain of Jascha Heifetz, whose recording remained for a long time alone in the Schwann catalog. More recently, Itzhak Perlman (Angel 47746), Gil Shaham (Deutsche Grammophon 439 886, 18:3), and Anne-Sophie Mutter (Deutsche Grammophon 000352602, 28:5), to name only several of the most prominent violinists, have recorded it, and they've been joined in the last several years by Leonidas Kavakos, Hilary Hahn (both on DVD), Nikolaj Znaider (RCA 710336, 32:6), James Ehnes (CBC 5241, 32:3), Paul Waltman (Daphne 1032, also 32:3)--and now by Philippe Quint, so that the work at last boasts almost as many recordings as Bruch's First Concerto did in the early 1960s. Heifetz's white-hot inspiration would be hard for anyone to match; besides his studio recording, there's another live one from March 30, 1947, with Efrem Kurtz on Music & Arts 766.

Like the more recent violinists to tackle the Concerto, Quint emphasizes its sweep and lyricism, soaring to moments of rapturous intensity that make their point unmistakably, even if Heifetz's indelible performance lurks in the background. Quint makes the first movement cogent, never either stale or derivative--and certainly not as percussive to the bone as Heifetz's crisp staccato made it seem. In fact, if it sounds like one of the great Romantic masterpieces in Naxos's recording, that may be as much due to Quint, or to Prieto and the orchestra, who provide a sympathetic and, in the slow movement, a magical accompaniment, as to the composer's virtuosity. Quint plays throughout with a silvery tone that's warm even in the middle registers and with a great capacity for expressive nuance; while it's clear that he's thoroughly in command of the work's abundant technical difficulties, he never lets them overwhelm the score's essential melodiousness. Prieto presents the finale's boisterous first theme with a robust energy that hearkens unmistakably back to its cinematic origins, and he reaches a stunning climax several minutes before the end. That so many recordings of Korngold's Violin Concerto have achieved so great a stylistic success, though hardly all poured from the same mold--or even from similar ones--attests to the understanding Korngold must have had of the instrument and its expressive resources. Quint's stands near the top (though all the recordings I've mentioned can be highly recommended), not least because of Prieto's sympathetic accompaniment and the lively recording, which places Quint farther up front, than, say, RCA placed Znaider.

Korngold's Overture to a Drama, from his 14th year, may not display the same maturity as his Violin Concerto, but it prefigures its sumptuous melodic style and its harmonic lavishness, if not the slickness of its brightly variegated orchestration. In fact, it may be a weakness in the orchestration itself rather than any aspect of Prieto's performance that prevents the score from making a very deep impression. Korngold adapted the Concert Suite from Much Ado about Nothing for violin and piano, but the full score's rich orchestral garb makes it even more effective in that more penetratingly witty original version. Prieto and the orchestra generously serve up the youthful and rambunctious good humor of the Suite. The recorded sound throughout combines depth and clarity, and places the soloist in a balance with the ensemble that's natural if forward. Very highly recommended.

Product Description

Much admired today as a pioneer of film music, Erich Korngold was a precociously
talented composer of concert and chamber music, opera and stage works, as his
Schauspiel Overture, written when he was only fourteen, shows. The phenomenal
success of his Violin Concerto, an ultra-romantic masterpiece drawing themes from his
scores for the films Another Dawn, Anthony Adverse and The Prince and the Pauper, has
overshadowed much of his other music, though his Much Ado About Nothing Suite has
remained popular for its expressivity, humour and robust good spirits. This recording
showcases another brilliant performance by violinist Philippe Quint.

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Naxos does it again..., July 10, 2009

By 

Laszlo "CD Explorer" (Ashburn, VA (USA)) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Korngold: Violin Concerto / Schauspiel Overture / Much Ado About Nothing (Audio CD)

I grew up during the time when this concerto was considered "not cool" or "too schmalzy". There were hardly any recordings made of it. But I could not care less. It is a marvellous concerto, and it makes your heart melt as most of Korngold music does: melodically and harmonically.
This recording is a blockbuster! Quint is spectacular (what pure tone!), the Mexican orchestra is first class (as is its conductor) and the recording is to die for: amazing sound! And all this at NAXOS price. Wow!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Philippe Quint, Carlos Prieto, Orch Sinf de Mineria: Korngold V Cto, Overture, Suite: To the manner born Readings, Excllnt Sound, January 4, 2010

By 

Dan Fee "music fan aka drdanfee" (Berkeley, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Korngold: Violin Concerto / Schauspiel Overture / Much Ado About Nothing (Audio CD)

I'm coming to this disc, fresh from being bowled completely over by Renaud Capucon with Yannick Nezet-Seguin conducting the Rotterdam Philharmonic. I still hold that release in five star esteem, and this one, too, as it turns out.

Once upon a past time, Naxos was interesting as an innovative label, but wildly variable in quality. You could find reams of unheard and less often heard music, but the performers might be anything from inspired to dutiful. So Naxos was a pick and choose affair for canny customers in the know. Now, however, the label has released so many clearly outstanding discs that its catalog must be tipping towards high excellence, period. Add this release to the winners; it easily stands out as a Naxos high mark. News arrives just now that this disc is nominated for a 2009 Grammy.

Quint plays a 1723 Strad (Kiesewetter), on loan from Clement and Karen Arrison through the Stradivari Society. The loan of this stunning instrument says a lot in itself. Quint was born in Russia but trained in the west, including his being in passing a Juilliard School student of the famous Dorothy Delay. He is brimming with musicianship and star quality. Oodles.

In the first opening notes of the Korngold concerto, Quint and the band demonstrate alert engagement with the color and gestural sweep of this music. The reading is more expansive than not, risking rubato and swagger more than the utterly deft balancing act that Capucon and Nezet-Seguin pull off for EMI Virgin disc. All to the good. Nobody actually falls off the musical fences into the stock silent film score character mugging that has dogged this music as a persistent shadow reputation. The busy, modernist chromatics are transmitted as sparkling lights, not extra handful of glitter hastily pasted on. Tempos are set, then paced beautifully. The Mexico City band rises to the Korngold occasion, confident, persuasive. The players are not just accompanying Quint, but rather are musically integrated with him into the eloquent concerto whole. The slow middle movement is precisely the high moment it was meant to be, then the finale last movement takes off with robust theatrics, again ever so finely judged.

The band gets to show off in the Schauspiel Overture. It was written when the composer was only fourteen years old, so of course it fails to demonstrate the savvy maturity of the later violin concerto. Yet, yet, yet. Carlos Miguel Prieto and the band serve it all up, handsomely. Their art is partly the art of not trying to take this youthful work more seriously than it can be heard to be; if Hollywood film composers later exploited similar colors and gestures, we must strictly recall that they are indebted to Korngold (including the fourteen year old who wrote this overture), not the other way round.

After thirteen minutes or so of German prodigy promise, a listener is happy to return to the Suite the composer worked out of his music, incidental to a performance of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing as given at Vienna's Schonbrunn Castle in 1920. We are yet again, off and running full tilt into the more mature composer's magical realms. A five minute overture with some dazzling woodwind writing is followed by four additional character pieces. Listeners new to this suite may hear it as a rehearsal of familiar film score attitudes; but real history again reverses the order of our musical influences. This Much Ado music was 1920, years before the Korngold scores for Captain Blood, Robin Hood, King's Row. Before - Korngold came to America or Hollywood.

Bravo, all concerned, Bravo Naxos. Five stars.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Philippe Quint just fabulous, March 13, 2010

By 

black gorilla "book lover extraordinaire" (Cocoa, FL) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Korngold: Violin Concerto / Schauspiel Overture / Much Ado About Nothing (Audio CD)

I bought this CD because the violinist (Quint) was in Florida at a symphony series we caught and I couldn't take my eyes off him. He was just great. And, you knew he would be when he first brought the bow to the strings and produced that most wonderfully exquisite sound. I've listened to this CD quite a few times and never get tired of hearing it.