ELGAR VIOLIN CONCERTO Vilde Frang, Deutscher Symphonie
Orchester Berlin/Robin Ticciati (Warner Classics 5021732409423)
This is such an exciting recording for so many reasons, not
only because of the quality of delivery from the performers, but also because
it restores this masterpiece to the status it so richly deserves.
The Elgar Violin Concerto has almost become a staple of the
repertoire, run-through dutifully in shrewdly-programmed concerts, but here we
are reminded of its immense status, speaking on its own terms as a searing
inner statement of the composer at his most vulnerable. We are reminded that
Fritz Kreisler, coming onstage to give its premiere, appeared white as a sheet.
He had to come down to earth in the second half by sitting at the back of the
first violins, sight-reading through Elgar’s First Symphony (was he aware the
first movement approached its end with a tentative reminder of the opening
theme coming from the back desk of the Firsts?).
What are we to make of the mystery surrounding the Violin
Concerto, similarly as there are so many others in the Elgar industry? In
Spanish, we are told in the dedication it conceals the soul of *****. Why
Spanish? And how convenient that the
five asterisks represent “Julia” (Julia Worthington a negligible candidate, in
my opinion), but also “Alice”. Alice Elgar a convenient let-out, but Alice
Stuart-Wortley a far more likely candidate for me. Elgar, an incurable romantic
right until the end of his life (remember VH – Vera Hockman – written above the
second subject in the first movement of his Third Symphony sketches), called
her his Windflower, and indeed referred to Windflower themes during the course
of the Violin Concerto.
Enough of context and speculation. Let’s get down to this
performance. Robin Ticciati, a conductor who has rapidly grown in my estimation
over the years, draws from the richly committed Deutsche Symphonie Orchester
Berlin a warmly engaged performance, building a huge sense of expectation until
Vilde Frang’s solo entry which both reflects and promises.
Frang immediately builds a sure sense of direction, a line
which already leads confidently towards its destination, and which can
therefore afford to linger thoughtfully along the way. Her tone is rich and
velvety, though never fulsomely plush, and her grasp of the music’s vast
architecture is consummate, leading to a beautiful hush from Ticciati’s
orchestra as she confides to us the wistful second subject.
To the slow movement Frang brings a dreamy, otherworldly pastoralism,
reminding us perhaps of Gerontius’ earliest steps into the afterlife, and quiet
timpani rolls underpin many of these rapt moments. The empathy between soloist
and conductor as the movement approaches its end warms the heart.
The finale finds Frang biting in attack during the cyclic
buildup as the music moves towards its culminatory cadenza, so well-shaped and
well-paced. The famous thrumming from the strings is more atmospheric that I
sometimes remember, and the bustling ending seems like a catharsis after so
much soul-searching.
After all this, Carissima (Thomas Hope accompanying – there is
no other encore, despite what has been written in some reviews), is a gentle
coming down to earth.
Christopher Morley
ends