Mozart: Violin Concertos Nos. 3, 4 & 5

Presentación del Álbum

There's a certain sameness to most of the hundreds of recordings of Mozart's violin concertos on the market: bright, graceful melodies with a French flavor, fetchingly sensuous, slow movements without a lot of depth, and sound that gives a metallic sheen to the strings and soloist. You get the last of these in this release by Norwegian violinist Henning Kraggerud, leading the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra from his instrument, but on the other two counts Kraggerud goes his own way to a fairly extreme degree. The booklet contains a little apologia for this that makes interesting reading, especially in the section pertaining to a competition jury on which the violinist once served. The performances themselves feature quick outer movements, nowhere more so than in the opening "Allegro" of the Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K. 216 (sample this track for the effect of the whole). The slow movements are also taken at a resolute pace. There's no way Kraggerud's slow movement in the Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, K 219, could be considered as corresponding to the marked "Adagio," but he's got that covered too, pointing out that slavish devotion to Mozartian texts, even Urtexts (researched original versions), should be avoided. The overall result is a set of violin concertos that has some muscle, that looks forward to bigger works later in Mozart's life, that is Italian-Viennese rather than French in inspiration. And that shakes up a rather stale repertory, which is all to the good. The church sound, however, does not fit Kraggerud's aims.

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