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Editorial Reviews
Fanfare Archive, Ronald E. Grames, May/June 2009
For anyone wishing recordings of all 37 completed bassoon concertos by the Red Priest, there is currently only one choice: Daniel Smith on five ASV CDs (552). While this is hardly a bad deal--Smith and his two conductors and orchestras present the works with great energy and dazzling virtuosity--there have always been nagging irritations. Smith is an amazing performer, but every concerto seems like an Olympic event; faster is better--faster and louder better still. If, in the process, he produced a hollow tone--made coarse when overblown, barking low notes here and there, occasional dicey intonation, intermittent fudged figurations where the tempo was set faster than the fingers could fly, it was all in the name of the race. He and the orchestra always got to the end, together, and by golly it was exciting. And yet--and yet--!As much as it seems like ungrateful nit-picking and as much as one is thrilled just to have all of these inventive works so well played, or played at all, in the end one feels that there should be something more than mere pyrotechnics, however breathtaking they might be.
Enter the extraordinary Hungarian bassoonist Tamás Benkócs, principal of the superb Budapest Festival Orchestra. Here at last is the poetry, not the race. Here is elegance and wit and wistfulness and moments of repose to go along with the amazing technical virtuosity. Benkócs doesn't have us on the edge of our seats, wondering if he is going to make it through a passage; rather he tackles the sometimes-staggering technical challenges with deceptive ease. The tempos are generally a bit slower than are Smith's, but with that slight relaxation one starts hearing the extraordinary music instead of just the amazing rush of notes. The middle slow movements benefit the most--Benkócs plays them as if he were singing an aria--but the variety that he finds in the fast movements, not to mention the warm solid tone, impeccable intonation, seamlessly blended tenor and bass registers, and precise articulation of even the most demanding passages, is well worth a little loss in raw excitement. I like his playing as well as that of Klaus Thunemann on Philips, and that is high praise indeed. Béla Drahos and his excellent modern-instrument band provide sympathetic accompaniment: buoyant, transparent, restrained in use of vibrato, harpsichord dominated, but with attractive depth. I would have liked them a bit farther forward on the sound stage, but that is a minor quibble. Collectors who have a wider interest in this repertoire will want to sample some of the colorful period-instrument performances on Naïve 30379 and 30409, but there is still a great deal of vitality in these traditional modern-instrument performances, as well.
With this volume, Mr. Benkócs has finished five CDs and 31 concertos. Assumedly, he will complete the series in one more volume. Two other Fanfare critics have weighed in on the series; David L. Kirk warmly welcomed Volume 2 (8.555938) in 28:6; but in 30:2, Laura Rónai found Volume 3 (8.557556) too polite by half, and non-descript to boot. I certainly side with Mr. Kirk, but obviously opinions vary. The nice thing about Naxos recordings is that one can experiment for a relatively small investment. That's what I recommend. Then you can buy the other four, as I did.
Enter the extraordinary Hungarian bassoonist Tamás Benkócs, principal of the superb Budapest Festival Orchestra. Here at last is the poetry, not the race. Here is elegance and wit and wistfulness and moments of repose to go along with the amazing technical virtuosity. Benkócs doesn't have us on the edge of our seats, wondering if he is going to make it through a passage; rather he tackles the sometimes-staggering technical challenges with deceptive ease. The tempos are generally a bit slower than are Smith's, but with that slight relaxation one starts hearing the extraordinary music instead of just the amazing rush of notes. The middle slow movements benefit the most--Benkócs plays them as if he were singing an aria--but the variety that he finds in the fast movements, not to mention the warm solid tone, impeccable intonation, seamlessly blended tenor and bass registers, and precise articulation of even the most demanding passages, is well worth a little loss in raw excitement. I like his playing as well as that of Klaus Thunemann on Philips, and that is high praise indeed. Béla Drahos and his excellent modern-instrument band provide sympathetic accompaniment: buoyant, transparent, restrained in use of vibrato, harpsichord dominated, but with attractive depth. I would have liked them a bit farther forward on the sound stage, but that is a minor quibble. Collectors who have a wider interest in this repertoire will want to sample some of the colorful period-instrument performances on Naïve 30379 and 30409, but there is still a great deal of vitality in these traditional modern-instrument performances, as well.
With this volume, Mr. Benkócs has finished five CDs and 31 concertos. Assumedly, he will complete the series in one more volume. Two other Fanfare critics have weighed in on the series; David L. Kirk warmly welcomed Volume 2 (8.555938) in 28:6; but in 30:2, Laura Rónai found Volume 3 (8.557556) too polite by half, and non-descript to boot. I certainly side with Mr. Kirk, but obviously opinions vary. The nice thing about Naxos recordings is that one can experiment for a relatively small investment. That's what I recommend. Then you can buy the other four, as I did.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The First of a Series of All of Vivaldi's Bassoon Concerti,
By J Scott Morrison (Middlebury VT, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Vivaldi: Bassoon Concertos Vol.1 (Audio CD)
I don't think I've ever heard a bad recording of a Vivaldi bassoon concerto. That may say more about me than about the recordings, but I don't think so. There is something about these concerti that attracts good players and, let's face it, these are not the most profound compositions ever written; they tend to be virtuosic for the soloist and have fairly simple orchestral accompaniments. They are, however, unfailingly pleasant, falling gracefully on the ear. I have particularly liked the recordings of Klaus Thuneman, Michael McCraw, and William Bennett. Here we have what appears to be the beginning of a new series of Vivaldi Bassoon Concerti featuring a bassoonist heretofore unknown to me, Tam'ás Benk'ócs (whose name, I'm informed by a Hungarian friend, is pronounced roughly TAHmahsh BENcoach). He is accompanied by the modern-instrument Nicolaus Esterh'ázy Sinfonia conducted by B'éla Drahos, the group and conductor that have made creditable recordings of Beethoven and Haydn symphonies for the Naxos label.
Vivaldi is thought to have written 39 bassoon concerti, of which two or more are incomplete. This CD contains, for those of you who are counting, seven of this number. They are RV 476 in C, 487 in F, 471 in C, 498 in A minor, 480 in C minor, 503 in B flat minor, 493 in G. (RV stands for 'Ryom-Verzeichnis', the catalog made of Vivaldi's works by musicologist Péter Ryom.) I list the specific concerti because Amazon has not done so on this page, or at least they haven't as of this review. The performances are exemplary. Benkó'cz's playing is technically flawless as well as being musical. His playing is equally impressive in the dancing fast movements and the more pensive middle movements. He does employ a bit more expressive range than some other players; this possibly accords with more modern scholarship about baroque performance practice. Whether it does or not, it pleased me. Further, his tone is very rich, even in rapid passages. He uses a moderate amount of vibrato, praise be. Tempi are well-chosen. Pity the poor record label that sets out to record all of Vivaldi's extant concerti for all instruments, something over five hundred. Maybe they'll stop with these bassoon works; I figure they can probably get the bassoon concerti onto about five or six CDs, a number that is not overwhelming. I'll be looking for further issues. TT=61.32 Scott Morrison
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
bassoon playing at its finest,
This review is from: Vivaldi: Bassoon Concertos Vol.1 (Audio CD)
This is an excellent set of CDs; the bassoon playing is absolutely superb. It can be hard to find great recordings of Vivaldi bassoon concerti on modern instruments, but Benkocs's playing is refined and technically brilliant. This is definitely one of the best bassoon recordings I've ever heard, on par with Dag Jensen, with whom Benkocs studied. Congrats to Naxos for finding a great bassoonist to do this project!
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thank you!,
By Tyrel_Roo (Arkansas, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Vivaldi: Bassoon Concertos Vol.1 (Audio CD)
Until this set of recordings was started, all we really had as far as recordings of Vivaldi bassoon concerti were one or two performances of the more popular ones by excellent bassoonists and a load of garbage by a man named Daniel Smith, whose playing is an abomination to both Vivaldi and the bassoon.
(It sickens me that, when we have incredible bassoonists like Dag Jensen and Bernard Garfield and Knut Sönstevold and David McGill and Laurent Lefevré and the late Maurice Allard--perhaps the greatest bassoonist to ever live--and a host of others, all of whom could play circles around Daniel Smith, that the latter's recordings outsell those of the former. He's been called the "James Galway of the bassoon", a pure load of dingo's kidneys by somebody who's obviously never heard even a decent bassoonist in his life. Ridiculous.) Although Tamás' tone is a little dark for my tastes, it's certainly extremely pleasant to listen to. His phrasing is very beautiful, his technique is spotless, and unlike bassoonists with the initials D.S., he doesn't sound constipated. Thank you, Tamás. Hopefully, if you complete this set, people will come to their senses. Buy these discs. You'll like them.
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