Schumann: Violin Concertos (Hyperion Romantic Violin Concerto 13)

Album review

Two violin concertos by Robert Schumann, when most listeners are hard pressed to name even one? That might seem the height of obscurity, but with the general growth in interest in Schumann's later music, no longer seen as the prelude to his descent into total insanity, the two works featured here have shown up more frequently on concert programs and, now, recordings. The truly odd work is the Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 129, which is an arrangement by Schumann himself of the cello concerto with the same opus number. He doesn't do anything drastic to the material of the cello concerto, but the effect of transposing the solo line upward is actually quite profound and alerts the listener to the role of register in some of the other late Schumann works: where the cello entwines with the orchestral material, the violin tends more to enter into dialogue with it. The Violin Concerto in D major, WoO 123, is also a late work, but it was suppressed by its dedicatee, Joseph Joachim, with the cooperation of Clara Schumann. It's easy enough to see what Joachim didn't like about it; the work does not favor the violin. But violinist Anthony Marwood is just one of the work's champions; what Joachim heard as repetitiveness is actually the subtle motivic work of Schumann's last period, which is not to everybody's taste but is worth a hearing here in this broad, attractive reading by Marwood and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Douglas Boyd. The Phantasie for violin and orchestra, Op. 131, is another rarely heard work, with a fascinating slow introduction derived from a minimum of material leading into a very broad fanfare. Certainly a worthwhile hour for Schumann buffs.

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