Sir Edward ELGAR (1857-1934)
Violin Concerto in B minor, Op 61 (1910) [47:15]
Wilhelm STENHAMMAR (1871-1927)
Two Sentimental Romances, Op.28 (1910) [5:52 + 5:49]
Triin Ruubel (violin)
Estonian National Symphony Orchestra/Neeme Järvi
rec. August 2017, Estonia Concert Hall, Tallinn
SOREL CLASSICS SCCD016 [58:56]
Fresh from the Elgar recording of Nicola Benedetti (see review) here’s one from Estonia. The soloist is Triin Ruubel who, since April 2015, has been concertmaster of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, whose conductor is Neeme Järvi. Her orchestral duties haven’t stopped her from pursuing concerto engagements across Europe but this is, I think, her first solo disc.
Järvi drives the orchestral introduction with real animation but allows sufficient flexibility to allow the music to unfold with a sure sense of direction. Ruubel’s first entry announces a change of pace and this relaxation suggests to me a basic difference between her soloistic conception and Järvi’s orchestral one: it’s not the only time that I sensed that the conductor wanted to press ahead but ensemble dictated he match his soloist’s viewpoint. In that respect her tempi are unremarkable and are almost identical to Benedetti’s, in fact, but it’s the elasticity – limpid, delicate and refined – that sets Ruubel apart as a performer of introspection as opposed to Benedetti’s much more heavily vibrated romanticism. It’s perhaps no surprise that Ruubel is at her best in the slow movement. In the big outer movements there are occasional moments of metrical and over-cautious passagework and a small-scaled sense of tonal resources allied to a lack of phrasal shaping that fail to convince.
Though she is clearly a fine player this concerto needs a consistent balance between assertive bravura and expressive intensity; lose the balance and the concerto capsizes. It doesn’t capsize here but telling details linger; the unsustainable orchestral counter-themes because her solo musing is too slow (she is not alone on disc in this respect by any means) and the lack of soul stirring and sheer fantasy in the concerto, not least in the accompanied cadenza. For all the occasional moments of melodrama in Benedetti’s performance, we really enter different territory listening to her reading.
Benedetti’s coupling – Elgarian trinkets – struck me as rather unsatisfactory. Ruubel and Järvi have gone for home ground in selecting Stenhammar’s delicious Sentimental Romances, played with sincerity and warmth, the more ardent F minor in particular, where she turns on her vibrato.
The recording took place in the orchestra’s home. The basses sometimes lack definition in the balance and the winds can sometimes sound a little cloudy and though it’s by no means a poor recorded sound, it’s not really ideal either. Apropos very little the clock counter of this CD does bizarre things. Opening at 99:59 at the beginning of the second movement it then proceeds to go backwards, Time’s Arrow style, segueing into the finale without changing track. The Romances then carry on going backwards, similarly segued to track 2, and I couldn’t separately track anything. Maybe mine was a rogue copy but best check.
I hope this is not taken as a negative final thought. Ruubel is a conscientious soloist and Järvi’s conducting is full of insight (except for his protraction of the final orchestral chord) and I think it would be worth hearing him in other Elgar works.
Jonathan Woolf
