Joachim First Violin Concerto

[Mark Thomas]

At long last the first of Joseph Joachim's Violin Concertos, the Violin Concerto in G minor in one movement op.3 will be available this month from Naxos. The coupling is another performance of the magnificent "Hungarian" Concerto and the soloist is Suyoen Kim with the Weimar Staatskapelle conducted by Michael Halasz. jpc say that they have it available already. The brief soundbite there (Track 1) is very promising...

[Peter1953]

Excellent news, Mark! I've just ordered the CD.

[Alan Howe]

'Tis ordered already!

[JimL]

Sorry Jim Ginsburg and Ms. Barton-Pine.  I'll find a good home for your Brahms/Hungarian CD.  Promise.

[edurban]

Just wondering...why is the Barton-Pine Hungarian Concerto looking for a new home?

David

[JimL]

a) I try not to duplicate whenever possible, and I'd rather sacrifice the Barton-Pine Brahms VC to pick up the Joachim 1.

b) I'd like to pick up a different Brahms anyway.  I've had to acknowledge there are better performances available than hers.

[sdtom]

I received it in the mail last week and have been enjoying it. Not being a violinist I'm assuming that it is quite difficult to perform.
Thomas

[Alan Howe]

Toskey says 'Grade 8' - i.e. very advanced. The Glazunov VC is graded similarly; Paganini's VCs get a 9.

[JimL]

Got the CD Monday and have listened to the G Minor concerto several times already.  It is indeed fiendishly difficult, and sounds it.  It's easy to understand why it dropped from the repertory, although an enterprising violinist here or there might want to put it in his or her bag of tricks.  I find it musically very substantial, but the intermediate length puts it at a disadvantage.  Why play one twenty minute movement when you can play a 3 movement Mozart violin concerto in around the same amount of time?  Or, going the other way, why not the Brahms or another warhorse, if you're going to play a large-scale concerto?  It's too long and substantial for an encore or a short, and too short to qualify as a "big" concerto.  Still, I find its material rather more memorable than one of the reviews I read held it to be.  It strikes me as a kind of "orphan" work - hard to fit in a modern-day concert program.  Ms. Kim acquits herself quite well in the Hungarian, although there are a couple of spots where she drops into near inaudibility or outpaces the orchestra.  Still, her interpretation is a welcome addition to the Rosand, Oliveira and Barton-Pine renditions already on disc.

[JimL]

Further reflections on the Joachim VC 1.  I noted that the score was published from the MS which was, IIRC from the bottom of the liner booklet, found in the Fleisher collection.  Maybe it never made the repertory because the composer either kept it as a private tour-de-force throughout his lifetime, or deliberately suppressed it because he had dedicated it to Liszt, from whom he later deliberately distanced himself.  Joachim was a stubborn old cuss.  Look what he did to Brahms over his (IMHO needless) divorce.  Nonetheless, I stand by my previous post, too.  How many one-movement concertos are actually in the repertory, I wonder?  And I don't mean multisectional works with three linked movements.  I mean one single concerto-sonata movement, like this one, or the Volkmann CC, to name but two.

[TerraEpon]

So you mean not like Saint-Saens's 1st Cello Concerto?

[JimL]

Right.  That's a cyclic 3 movement work, IMHO.  Works like the Arensky or Glazunov VCs are a little more ambiguous.  The Volkmann CC or the concerto discussed here are both in a fairly straightforward sonata form with a few slight modifications (extra cadenzas, fused expositions, etc.).  The template is more like the Liszt Sonata.

[JimL]

Could somebody who has both works please give a listen to the Joachim G Minor Concerto and compare the second subject to one of the themes in Gabriel Pierne's PC?  I think it's the second subject in the first movement, and it recurs cyclically in the finale.  I don't have a copy of the Pierne.  That theme in the Joachim reminded me of something, and I think I've tracked it down to the Pierne.