Accardo is a splendidly satisfying soloist. His Paganini
recordings are a discographic milestone and his Bruch set with Masur,
of which the Scottish Fantasy forms part, opened more than one
pair of ears to the depth and breadth of Bruch’s imaginative understanding
of the concerto or Konzertstück. This Eloquence disc intelligently
brings together two works with folk affiliations and the pairing is
mutually beneficial not least for the convincing nature of the recordings
and the attractive playing of the soloist.
The Dvořák is probably
the better-known recording, much lauded when it first appeared and generally
held to be superior to the almost contemporaneous Perlman disc. I have
my doubts. Accardo is certainly heart felt, his lyricism effortlessly
yielding, his tone attractive and pliant and in the first movement his
control of dynamics is excellent. The episode where the violin muses
with woodwind counter themes, flute shadowing the fiddle, oboe carrying
the melody before the violin returns with its gravely beneficent song,
is attractively done. The Concertgebouw principals are in top form,
alive to the chamber intimacies, and the mosaic of sound colours they
impart to the fabric of the score is truly impressive. Davis, whose
Dvořák symphony recordings are famous, is a solicitous conductor,
generous and imaginative, who holds alertly to his soloist’s line. In
the second movement the violin’s songful wisps of melody and effortless
trills are convincingly handled as are the brass led section
leading to a folk dance and beautiful intensification of feeling and
tone. All this is so graciously and affectingly done that it seems churlish
to wish for the kind of conducting that Walter Süsskind provided
in this work – pliant within an essentially fast tempo, sectionally
related, never sagging, inflections without ostentation, with a memorably
cohesive view of the work as a whole. In the rustic finale there is
really never quite the adrenalin one can get in the very best performances.
Accardo is predictably fine here, of course, and his phrasing is rhythmically
pointed and involved but the sheer brio of Josef Suk’s recording is
unmatched; it’s not leaden, not by a long way, but it doesn’t dance
and drive as it could or, maybe, should.
If you know only the Heifetz and Perlman recordings
of the Scottish Fantasy – two stunning accounts – you may not
have moved afield to investigate Accardo and Masur. And that, I think,
would be a pity. Firstly Accardo plays with dignity, expressivity and
attractive, never opulent but always sensitive, tone. He is never dead
centre in the note as Heifetz was and doesn’t engage in the spine-tinglingly
luscious expressive devices that the older man did. But his own aesthetic
is more restrained, less sensuous and less overtly theatrical. And then
there is Masur and the Gewandhaus. Theirs is a stellar contribution,
with fantastic richness in the strings, especially lower strings, and
they bring out counter and subsidiary themes and motifs that would otherwise
escape notice or be consumed in less sensitive, less understanding hands.
Masur is an ex string player and it shows. The exchanges between violin
and high woodwind in the Scherzo are fantastically effective and exciting.
I capitulated entirely in the transition from the little Adagio
section to the Andante sostenuto and listened in unbounded admiration
to the sheer musicality and unforced lyricism of the playing, to the
shading of string accompaniment and the woodwind patterns behind Accardo’s
pirouetting and quickly trilling violin. The finale similarly is notable
for the incendiary chugging basses – how often does one hear string
clarity of this kind – the open hearted playing of soloist and superb
orchestral support. Every mood and motion of the movement is prepared
for and executed with affectionate understanding, instrumental reminiscences
mused upon but never imposed, the strings’ monumental certainties answered
by the soloist’s more uncertain reflections, all held together with
pliant understanding.
A fine disc, the Dvořák
is attractive but the Bruch is memorable. With so many confluences of
tensile strength and pliancy, folk-like simplicity and architectural
surety this is a desirable coupling. I would buy it for the Bruch alone.
Jonathan Woolf
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Salvatore Accardo, violin