Customer Reviews

Walton: VIOLIN CONCERTO / CELLO CONCERTO

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
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The CD is one of the finest the Naxos have produced - the playing is sumptuous and the recording superb. All orchestral details are vivid and clear, the soloists's playing wonderfully captured.

Tim Hugh's reading of the cello concerto is probably the best on record. He has tough competition with Piatigorsky and Ma, and recently Muller-Schott, but Hugh finds an ecstasy and a ravishing sense of line and structure that convinces you that Walton might have been right after all in proclaiming this the finest of all his concerti.

The violin concerto is wonderfully played by Kang, beautifully focussed and poised and always perfectly in tune (which goes without saying for Tim Hugh's performance also). I would not say that this was better than Heifetz or the countless others that have recorded it, but it is certainly up there with the best of them.

All in all a stunning disc that gives the strongest advocacy for these two haunted masterpieces.

Dong Suk Kang's play should be excellent as much as Joshua Bell's. Coupling in this CD is one of the best collections of Walton's concertos.

When a composer has a work commissioned by a major artist, the result must be suitable for that artist and yet approachable by other players in future performances. The Violin Concerto was written for Heifitz in 1939. The one for Cello was written for Piatigorsky in 1957. On this Naxos release, we have Dong-Suk Kang and Tim Hugh respectively with Paul Daniel conducting the English Northern Philharmonia. I confess that this is my first exposure to both of these works and I cannot compare them with other renderings. Both pieces are certainly not for casual listening; and if you want your vituoso pyrotechnics, you had best stick with Tchaikovsky and Dvorak. The cello concerto is now moody, now tranquil but never flashy. By the nature of its instrument, the Violin Concerto is a bit brighter, with its scherzo "alla napolitana"--designed, again, for Heifitz' particular skills.