Beethoven, Brahms: Violin Concertos

Chronique

Violinist Gil Shaham is quite a familiar figure on the American scene, so it may be a surprise to find that he apparently never recorded Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61, prior to this release. He has recorded the Brahms Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77, before, and it is significant that his reading of that work is less unorthodox than that of the Beethoven, although it's solid in every way. However, it is the Beethoven concerto that really draws the ear here. It's hard to say whether the conception of the work is Shaham's, or whether the interpretation is the result of a lively dialogue between the violinist and the orchestra The Knights, and its conductor, Eric Jacobsen, but then, it doesn't really matter. Jacobsen takes all three movements at an unusually fast clip that would be problematic if it were not answered with great intelligence by Shaham, who takes his time, introduces deliberate passages, and altogether redefines the relationship between soloist and orchestra in the work; the violinist is not a heroic figure but one who atomizes the orchestral material. It's quite uncanny and beautifully controlled, and if that were not enough, Shaham introduces a cadenza of his own in the finale. It's unusual enough (for soloist, timpani, and horns) that opinions may differ wildly, but one can imagine Joseph Joachim, who popularized the concerto, enjoying it, and indeed enjoying Shaham's performance in general. In the Brahms, Shaham uses the usual cadenzas by Joachim, and throughout his performance of the work shows a player at the peak of his powers. This release on the Canary Classics label is worth the time, even with those who have an expansive shelf or hard drive space devoted to these concertos.

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