As couplings go this is the most famous you can find,
albeit with the addition of the two Saint-Saëns sweetmeats. But
with Pierino Gamba on the rostrum – childhood prodigy conductor – and
the combustible, galvanizing figure of Ruggiero Ricci as soloist it’s
a safe bet that the recording won’t be a safe bet. And so it proves.
If you want elevated, sweet toned raffine playing in the Mendelssohn,
if your preference is for romanticism but not ever emoted expressivity
in the Bruch; if, in short, you enjoy well equalized and discreet musicality
then Ricci is not the violinist for you. If, on the other hand, you
enjoy personalized playing, an exceptional technique, some succulent
and big sounds and the antithesis of impersonal and blandly monochrome
disengagement then maybe Ricci is for you after all.
Ricci has recently (2002) announced his retirement
from the concert stage, a career that extended even beyond Milstein’s,
and which saw some considerable ups and downs. He tended publicly to
denigrate his middle period – of which this recording is, I suppose,
an example - as a time in which he played safe, in which he unlearned
the adolescent speculations and strongly emotionalised responses to
music making. In his middle age, with the belief, in his words, that
it was better to be a whore than a nun, he felt he regained control
of his own musical destiny.
Ricci is an engaging personality and a sometimes contentious
musician. In the Mendelssohn there is some tremulous playing in the
first movement but also a splendid cadenza and elegantly expressive
playing – nothing sleek and manicured about it all – and some delightful
phrasal inflections. Interesting too to hear how Gamba encourages woodwind
weight behind the soloist. In the second movement, where one might expect
some disruptive mannerisms Ricci’s vibrancy – in contrast – is eloquently
under control. The finale is restrained too, at a reasonable tempo and
not the show off sprint it can sometimes become; admirable is the little
fillip Gamba gives to the trumpets here (and there are a number of little
felicities in his management of the orchestral patina that intrigued
me). The Bruch is another good performance, if not in the more exalted
category of recordings. Maybe one might shy away from his over vibrated
intensity at some points in the first movement – but they could equally
be seen as valid emotional responses to melodic depths – but I must
say I liked his way with the music; open hearted without emotive fawning,
tonally wide without some of the more obvious points of dissention associated
with it (oscillatory vibrato, over intense lyrical line) The Saint-Saëns
pieces, recorded two years later, follow pretty much the same profile
– vibrant without hysteria and very engaging.
Very nice transfers of recordings now over forty years
old – you would never know - and an autumnal cover photograph of a rather
desiccated looking birch tree. Nothing desiccated about the performances
though.
Jonathan Woolf
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Ruggiero Ricci, violin