Max BRUCH (1838-1920)
Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 44 (1877) [25:30]
Konzertstück in F sharp minor, Op. 84 (1910) [17:54]
In memoriam in C sharp minor, Op. 65 (1893) [15:14]
Adagio appassionato in F minor, Op. 57 (1890) [9:40]
Jack Liebeck (violin)
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Martyn Brabbins
rec. 10-11 December 2014 in City Halls, Candleriggs, Glasgow, Scotland
The Romantic Violin Concerto – Volume 21
HYPERION CDA68055 [68:21]
Bruch’s First Violin Concerto has so much overshadowed
his other two that it is perhaps surprising so few violinists have wanted
to look beyond that warhorse to its companions, especially as it was inspired
and championed by no less a virtuoso than Sarasate. Despite that, it is not
as virtuosic as the First, though it shares a not dissimilar structure with
a brooding first movement – meant to evoke the tragic aftermath of the
Carlist civil wars in 19th century Spain, as suggested to Bruch
by Sarasate as a programme for the work - and a finale which gathers momentum
with tremolo strings towards a lively and quirky main theme.
Jack Liebeck approaches the Concerto in a generally restrained manner, avoiding
grandiloquence and turning it into something it is not. True there could be
more sparkle in the finale’s theme, and the conclusion almost seems
accidental, but in not racing ahead in tempo this movement maintains some
sort of logical coherence and unity with the rest of the work, especially
in growing out of the second movement ‘Recitativo’. Where Liebeck
draws a warm tone for the latter, with something of Sarasate’s bravado
stealing in with the horn-like feature of the violin’s first idea, in
the first movement he plays sorrowfully, and is sympathetically supported
by the hollow glow of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s playing
under Martyn Brabbins. Salvatore Accardo’s recording of the work with
the Leipzig Gewandhaus encompasses more physical presence with a modicum more
passion and sweet-toned playing, but Liebeck’s ethereal interpretation
is sure to beguile just as much, and complements Accardo’s classic account,
rather than replaces it.
If anything, Liebeck’s playing exudes more character in the three independent
pieces for violin and orchestra included in this edition of Hyperion’s
Romantic Violin Concerto series (which has already covered Bruch’s First
and Third
Concertos with the same forces as here). The underrated Adagio Appasionato
receives a beautifully undemonstrative performance, where the more unsettled
minor-key middle section, and the odd sforzando and fortissimo
barely register as disturbing the prevailing nostalgia of the piece. If Beethoven’s
two Romances for violin and orchestra are more or less established in the
violinist’s repertoire, there seems little reason for this work not
to join them.
The Konzertstück might have been a fourth violin concerto, but Bruch
never wrote a third movement for it. Liebeck and Brabbins set both this work
and In Memoriam within a frame of composure and moderation, as realised
in their choice of dynamics which do not veer to extremes, in Liebeck’s
controlled and graceful playing, and in the warm integration of the orchestral
texture. In the Konzertstück it is the Adagio second section which
is the more urgent but is still executed elegantly by Liebeck; for In
Memoriam Brabbins secures an Elgarian wistfulness from the BBCSO, even
though Bruch wrote it without anybody or thing in mind. These finely crafted
works hardly break new musical ground, but they receive sensitive readings,
making for an enjoyable hour’s worth of listening.
Curtis Rogers
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