Customer Reviews

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Violin Concerto; Antonín Dvorák: Violin Concertos

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

 

 

This piece, Coleridge-Taylor's last, finds him returning to his exuberant and spontaneous best. I'm a bit biased to say the very least, but I have to say that some of his works can at times have an over-embellished, slightly laboured feel - a bit clunky and Victorian/Edwardian sounding - but still not without its charm. The Violin Concerto is a great piece. The story of the Concerto itself is a fascinating one. The first version, based on an African-American spiritual, was rejected by the Americans who commissioned it, and the second was lost at sea. The Concerto here was written just in time for its American premiere but the stress and overwork that went into it, all had a part in the composers premature and tragic death from pneumonia brought on by exhaustion. Maud Powell, the violinst it was written for, said seeing it for the first time was like receiving a bouquet of flowers. This piece is earning Coleridge-Taylor a very well-deserved and very overdue revival. Charles Elford - author of Black Mahler The Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Story [...]

the Samuel Taylor Coleridge, is aa excellent violin concerto, and has a joyousness about it and well compliments the Dvorvak