Two years ago - how time does fly! - I reviewed
here the young Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang’s first
disc for EMI, coupling the Sibelius concerto with Prokofiev’s
First. I have returned to that disc several times, when rediscovering
how very individual the playing is always adds to the pleasure.
It might seem perverse, therefore, and it is certainly disappointing
for me, that it is the very individuality of the playing in
Tchaikovsky’s celebrated concerto that makes this performance
less satisfying. Let us note the programming though, once again,
a big romantic concerto coupled with one less frequently heard
and less of a crowd-puller.
The first movement of the Tchaikovsky is a gloriously lyrical
outpouring, and Frang is not short on that, but hers is clearly
a no-nonsense view of the concerto, fully supported by conductor
Elvind Gullberg Jensen. We can hear this straightaway in the
short orchestral introduction, which is rather straight and
unyielding, though the recorded sound is remarkably rich. Frang’s
first entry follows, a mixture of very individual phrasing -
holding back here, pushing forward there - mixed with a directness
of approach that sometimes misses, just slightly, the sentimental
heart - and I have chosen the adjective with care - that is
surely part of this music. Her singing tone is put to marvellous
use during this first passage, lasting some six minutes, and
this is followed by the first big orchestral tutti which is
brisk rather than broad, and which really puts the stamp on
the whole performance. The orchestra plays marvellously well
- a lovely first flute just after the cadenza - but much of
the orchestral writing in this concerto really is accompaniment,
and I have heard more made of it in other performances. And
talk of the cadenza allows me to draw attention to the many
points therein, as well as elsewhere in the movement, where
the soloist has clearly thought afresh about such matters as
pace and phrasing, leading to numerous individual touches that
many may find spontaneous, but which sometimes come across to
this listener, in a way that the same soloist’s way with
Sibelius did not, as calculated and studied. Other examples
of this young artist “putting her mark” on the work
include more than usually differentiated moods in the main theme
and interludes of the slow movement, though the overriding melancholy
of this movement is very well communicated. The finale is brilliantly
played, though a little hard driven for my taste. Although I
was listening without a score - I’m quite convinced I
used to have one! - it seems to me that at least some of the
little cuts from the bad old days in this movement are back
in place, rather contrary to current, and preferable, practice.
The performance of the Nielsen concerto is very fine indeed.
I first heard this piece in my teens, probably at pretty much
the same time as I first heard the Tchaikovsky, but near-constant
exposure to the Russian’s concerto means that one knows
it off by heart, which one can’t say for the Nielsen.
This is perhaps why the soloist’s undoubted individuality
of approach disturbs me less in the Nielsen than it does in
the Tchaikovsky. There are some fiendish passages in the work
- as there are in the Tchaikovsky - which this astonishing young
player throws off with aplomb, and she is very expressive indeed
in the gentler passages. Whilst finding her performance totally
convincing, I also listened to two much older performances,
by Dong-Suk Kang on BIS,
accompanied by Myung-Whun Chung, and Cho- Liang Lin with Salonen
on a 1988 CBS Masterworks disc (reissued on Sony
Classics). To my surprise I preferred both the older readings
to the newer one, and for the same reason. The two movements
of Nielsen’s concerto make up a rather unorthodox layout,
and both earlier violinists maintain a sense of the work’s
architecture better than Frang manages here. We are in no doubt,
for example - especially with Lin - that the arrival of the
playful final rondo melody is the continuation of the second
movement and not, as Frang’s performance tends to give
the impression, the beginning of quite a separate one.
Vilde Frang is a magnificent young violinist and these are two
magnificent performances. I was bowled over by the earlier disc
mentioned above, and I think any listener coming to this one
with fewer preconceptions than mine will be bowled over by it
too. The recording is sumptuous, and the booklet carries a helpful
article by David Fanning.
William Hedley
Masterwork Index: Tchaikovsky
violin concerto
Vilde Frang (violin) 