MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

 

Availability
CD: Forgotten Records

Pyotr Il’yich TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893)
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 (1878) [29:16]
Max BRUCH (1838 - 1920)
Violin Concerto No.1 in G Minor, Op. 26 (1868) [21:30]
Kol Nidrei Op.47 [9:02]
Michèle Auclair (violin)
Austrian Symphony Orchestra/Kurt Wöss (Tchaikovsky)
Austrian Symphony Orchestra/Wilhelm Loibner (Bruch)
rec. 1950 (Tchaikovsky) and undated (Bruch)
FORGOTTEN RECORDS FR 126 [59:22]

Experience Classicsonline



Michèle Auclair (1924-2005) had a very strange career on disc. She was a pupil of Boris Kamensky, Jules Boucherit and Thibaud, an important prize-winner and an exceptional chamber player. She taught, too, extensively in America where she also performed — there is an extant example of her Tchaikovsky Concerto from Boston, live, with Charles Munch. And yet, for all that, she was one of those artists whose studio career was rather limited. There was a lot of competition but it does at least account for the astronomically high prices her early LPs attract on the second-hand market.
 
Her Schubert Sonata discs have attracted some serious cachet over the years, as have the Bach Sonata recordings with Marie-Claire Alain. But whilst she left many pieces unrecorded she was twice asked to record the Tchaikovsky, with which work she was clearly identified in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Forgotten Records disinters the one conducted by Kurt Wöss; the other one was directed by Robert Wagner in Innsbruck. Incidentally Forgotten Records notes the orchestra as the Vienna Symphony, but every reference I’ve seen points to the Austrian Symphony Orchestra.
 
The recording puts the soloist right out in front, which is good for aficionados of such things but less good for orchestral balancing. Auclair is a bold, slashing Tchaikovskian, something of a speed merchant apt to over-egg her tone, but always interesting. Phrasally the opening is over-manicured, but whilst there’s very little light and shade in this performance, and much forceful lyricism, one can see why she should have aroused such curiosity in this concerto in particular. Steely and raw she may be, but this is never neutral playing; it’s terse, sometimes brittle, and full of razory panache and engagement. Very much not a David Oistrakh performance!
 
Wilhelm Loibner accompanies her in the ‘Bruch in G minor’. The same conductor had taken the honours for the ageing Albert Spalding for Remington at around the same time in the American’s Vienna recordings. Auclair’s opening statement is let down by an intrusively fast vibrato but again the patterning of her phrases is well worth hearing as it’s often so unusual. The slow movement is rather unsettled, with her unremitting intensity and taut vibrato getting too much: it’s rather wearying. But the finale makes amends with some spirited and assured playing. One doesn’t often hear the Kol Nidrei recorded by a violinist, as it is here, and very nicely indeed.
 
This is a faithful and well engineered transfer.
 
Auclair is something of a forgotten figure, though she died as recently as 2004. Her playing is energetic, abrasive and charged with intensity. Even when one doesn’t much like the playing, she always leaves you with lots of things to think about. Too often today, violinists leave you with nothing to think about.
 
Jonathan Woolf


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.