Customer Reviews

Violin Concerto Opus 14

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I believe that the Barber's violin concerto is one of the greatest piece ever composed in the 20th century. It is a piece which best describes the true essence of Samuel Barber's music. This performance by Robert McDuffie is the most brilliant rendition of the Violin Concerto I have ever heard!!! And I have heard many! McDuffie and the ASO does a wonderful job of depicting the many moods and emotions that lie within Barber's Violin Concerto. McDuffie's performance provokes an intense feeling of abstract nostalgia that few musician achieve with this piece.

One of the highlights in this performance is the second movement. On top of being the greatest performance on the violin, the oboe soloist in the beginning of this movement produces the most georgous oboe solo I have ever heard in any recording of this piece. If any oboe solo can put a tear in my eye, this would be the one. Bravo to the principal oboist of the ASO and Robert McDuffie!!! An intense and emotional performance!!!

Samuel Barber's only real representative in the concert repertory is his famous 'Adagio for Strings,' but I really feel that it is one of his weaker works. His magnifacent violin concerto is one of the most beautiful and expressive ever written, from the poignant sophistication of the first movement, to the moody Romanticism of the ravishingly gorgeous slow movement, right to the end of the percussive barn-burner of a finale.

His ballet 'Souveneirs' is a comical satire on the era of silent movies and is a collection of popular dances, such as a waltz, tango, pas de deux, two step, etc. It is an attractively easy-going, somewhat jazzy work that just about anyone would like.

The piano concerto is a very modernistic work, but Barber still doesn't stray to far from his romantic voice. Except in the ethereal middle movement, we are confronted with a restless violence that gives an unprepared listener little breathing room, but it is nonetheless a wholly accessible work.

I heard this violin concerto for the first at an University of Iowa symphony concert. Although the orchestra did just okay and the soloist was a violin professor who did very well indeed; I was attracted to the melodies and the orchestration. I always like Barber and this concerto quickly became one of my favorites. The recording is excellent. The soloist and the orchestra are superb. It a haunting and whimsical piece. Very good all around.

It is so hard to find good collections of only Barber's works. Happily, this is one of the best. Each listening brings the challenge of deciding which of the three works presented here is "the best." It is a battle each wins.

Barber is a "modern" composer, but because of his background as a singer, a very tonal and fluid writer. Easily the inheritor from Ives as the best American composer of his times.

Enjoy!

This CD is a tribute to one of America's greatest classical composers (in my opinion the most talented). On this CD, there are two of the most thrilling concertos in the modern repetoire. Let me start off with the adagio in the violin concerto. If you know this work, you know why I start here. Otherwise, let me tell you. I find this adagio to be one of the most heartfelt and lovely pieces of music I have ever heard. There is an ethereal beauty that is immediately present in this movement. Telarc captures the pizzicato of the basses so wonderfully, that I get goose bumps when I really pay attention to all the details of the performance. Then there is the playing of Robert McDuffie. He plays this adagio very sensitively giving it a warm feeling that lifts up your spirit even though there is a small sense of unrest in the movement. Then the finale busts out and hits you in the face. It's three minutes of terror. Robert McDuffie is going everywhere on the violin and your mind is doing all it can to keep up with his pace. Finally, the concerto is finished, and the only thing missing is the rapturous applause that should accompany this performance. The Atlanta Symphony conducted by Yoel Levi give an incredible accompaniment. Moving on to the piano concerto. If there is a small sense of unrest in the violin concerto, the unrest is only magnified in the piano concerto. It is indeed a tense piece of music that keeps you on edge until its conclusion. Mr. Parker, the pianist, shows us that he has mastered this difficult piano piece. At times, one can here that the conductor and pianist have different ideas on how to take the piece, but the overall product is excellent. Again, the sound that Telarc provides in this recording is top notch---very detailed and full.

These are wonderful renditions of Barber's poignantly lovely violin concerto and his barbarically rapacious piano concerto. McDuffie is marvelous; almost as good as Stern! But Parker is too tame for my taste, especially in the finale. John Browning's definitive recording with Szell/Cleveland is still the best, but when in the world will Sony reissue it on CD? Yoel Levi and Atlanta give virtuoso performances that stand up well against any others. If you have the Columbia Masterworks digitally re-mastered LP of Browning/Szell/Cleveland with Stern/Bernstein/ NYPO, rip it, burn it, and sell it on the black market for the rest of us, please (just kidding!)! But seriously, Sony needs to wake up and get those tracks reissued on CD ASAP!

There are three works on this album, but that is not clear from the Amazon tracks listing:

1) Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, OP 14. 2) The "Souvenirs" ballet. 3) Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, OP 38.