Your Top Violin Concertos!

[Philoctetes]

The only ones I can listen to with any type of frequency are all composed by Bach.

[Christo]

There are thousands of violin concerti so this is really hard! My top VCs which I can recall right now and which are not be very famous are:
Cristobal Halffter VC1
Gerhard Rosenfeld VC1
Akira Ifukube VC1
Roger Sessions VC
Poul Ruders VC
Bent Sorensen VC
... and from the known ones I really like the Ligeti, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Barber, Glass, Pettersson 2 and Tishchenko 2.

The most original list in this thread so far! (And quite daring, to consider Petterson 2 and Tishchenko 2 as belonging to the "better know ones" - you're teasing us, aren't you? 

I must confess I never heard the first, second, and fourth - nor did I hever hear about composer Gerhard Rosenfeld before. Tell us more!

[The new erato]

Cristobal Halffter VC1
Gerhard Rosenfeld VC1
Akira Ifukube VC1
Roger Sessions VC
Poul Ruders VC
Bent Sorensen VC

With repertoire as rare as this, I'd like to hear about available recordings !

[jwinter]

Bach (throw a dart, they're all good)
Brahms
Beethoven
Mendelssohn
Sibelius
Prokofiev 2
Vivaldi 4 Seasons (and many others)
Glass
Saint-Saens 3
NOT Mozart (these have always struck me as pretty weak Mozart, they just haven't grabbed me)

[71 dB]

NOT Mozart (these have always struck me as pretty weak Mozart, they just haven't grabbed me)

I don't understand why people find early Mozart weak. I find his Violin Concertos very good. I like other early Mozart too. He is ambitious to show of his skills and uses more baroque-like complexity. Later Mozart can be even annoying as he shows more crowd pleasing simplicity (especially in his operas) than ambitious structures.

[S709]

The most original list in this thread so far! (And quite daring, to consider Petterson 2 and Tishchenko 2 as belonging to the "better know ones" - you're teasing us, aren't you? 

I don't know, it's all very relative, for example I think the Waxman VC mentioned earlier is much less known than Tishchenko VC2 which sidoze has always been talking about a lot on GMG, and the Pettersson 2nd has been mentioned on GMG a lot too... so in my mind they are fairly 'known' but I suppose it was silly to group them with the *really* known, indeed.

I know the Rosenfeld, Ifukube, Halffter and Ruders works only thanks to violinconcerto and cello enthusiast [not sure what his new name is on this board though!].

With repertoire as rare as this, I'd like to hear about available recordings !

Ok here goes  --
I only know one recording of each of these concertos I mentioned:

My recording of the Halffter VC1 is performed by Christiane Edinger and the Frankfurt RSO conducted by the composer. It is available on this CD which looks out of print, of course!
It is long, dark and with a very "avant garde" sound, and very expressive. It is in a sort of like a slightly more intricate or subtle early Penderecki style. The orchestral textures are one of the key 'attractions' of this work. There is a "clockwork" section about 20 minutes in that is somewhat reminiscent of Ligeti.


The Rosenfeld VC1 is played by Gustav Schmahl/Dresden Philharmonic/Gerhard Rolf Bauer. I am not sure of the source of this recording, it could be a radio recording or an LP transfer (I have CDR) -- just like with the Taktakishvili F minor VC, we can see that sometimes the most interesting music is neglected in terms of recordings. The concerto is wonderful, intensely lyrical and with strong themes, in a Pettersson-ish sort of way. I love it. The composer is greatly under-recorded; there are a few pieces of his in the giant "Musik in Deutschland 1950-2000" series, but I don't know of any others.


Bent Sørensen's VC "Sterbende Gärten" is an enigmatic and in places "ghostly" piece. It takes many listens to uncover its "mysterious contents".
Here is a bit of what the composer has to say about it, in the lines notes:

One gray and rainy spring day in 1992, I found myself in an old, overgrown garden. The house with the garden had long since been abandoned. In the dense undergrowth and vines, I could make out the contours of the framework that once controlled this refined piece of garden culture. The encounter with the overgrown garden left me in the same mood you can get into when looking at time-worn photos of unknown people long since departed. This strange mood was the initial inspiration for my violin concerto.

This is a Dacapo CD; the concerto is played by Rebecca Hirsch with the Danish NRSO conducted by Leif Segerstam.


The Sessions VC is available on a CRI "American Masters" CD, with Paul Zukofsky, Orchestre Philharmonique de l'Office de la Radio diffusion-Television Francaise, conducted by Gunther Schuller. The CD also includes Stefan Wolpe's Symphony. It's hard to describe Sessions' music for some reason -- all I can say is that his VC is quite excellent.


For Poul Ruders I meant his 2nd VC. I forgot all about his 1st! This is another enigmatic work, with a lot of haunting high-register passages. Very intriguing. It is available on this Marco Polo CD.

The performers are: Rebecca Hirsch, Collegium Musicum Copenhagen, Michael Schonwandt.


As for the Ifukube VC1, I have no idea of the performers in this recording I have, I will have to ask violinconcerto. It is from a rare japanese CD. This concerto from the composer of the Godzilla movie soundtracks is quite great, energetic, and inventive. Hopefully Naxos will release it some time, as they have done with a whole disc of Ifukube orchestral works.

[The new erato]

Thank you. Anybody know what Zukovsky is up to these days? His DG recording (with MTT) of William Schumans violin concerto - a concerto that certainly deserves to be mentioned in this thread - is one of the great VC recordings.

And while I'm here let me make a plead for Milhauds 2nd VC as well, one of my favorites and at least on my top 20 list. Probably the best work I am familiar with from this wildly uneven composer.

[Josquin des Prez]

I don't understand why people find early Mozart weak.

Maybe because it is weak.

[S709]

I have heard those (Milhaud 2 and Schuman) a looong time ago, I will have to revisit them.

I'm listening again to the Roger Sessions concerto and one of the most striking things about the first movement is the wonderful interplay between the winds (for example horn) and the solo violin. The solo line is a like a single, long flowing melody, quite beautiful.

[71 dB]

Maybe because it is weak.

No, it's not weak. It's an insane theory that Mozart became suddenly a genius when he turned 18!

Early Mozart is good, people just don't understand how.

[greg]

"Only a man who himself deserves respect is capable of paying respect to another man." --Arnold Schoenberg

0:)

surprisingly, i'm not adding Brahms nor Schoenberg. Never cared for either of them.


Paganini- 1st and 2nd (the only ones i've heard)
Berg
Prokofiev- both
Penderecki- 1st (2nd one is kinda boring in comparison)
Ligeti
Norgard

that's all i can think of

[violinconcerto]

The Rosenfeld VC1 is played by Gustav Schmahl/Dresden Philharmonic/Gerhard Rolf Bauer. I am not sure of the source of this recording, it could be a radio recording or an LP transfer (I have CDR) -- just like with the Taktakishvili F minor VC, we can see that sometimes the most interesting music is neglected in terms of recordings. The concerto is wonderful, intensely lyrical and with strong themes, in a Pettersson-ish sort of way. I love it. The composer is greatly under-recorded; there are a few pieces of his in the giant "Musik in Deutschland 1950-2000" series, but I don't know of any others.

The Rosenfeld is recorded on a "Hastedt" CD, which can be found at www.jpc.de (or some others sources). There exists another CD with the same recording (if I am not wrong) on a label, which I can recall now. This CD contains the Rosenfeld VC1 and Khachaturian piano concerto. An internet search will bring this recording up.

As for the Ifukube VC1, I have no idea of the performers in this recording I have, I will have to ask violinconcerto. It is from a rare japanese CD. This concerto from the composer of the Godzilla movie soundtracks is quite great, energetic, and inventive. Hopefully Naxos will release it some time, as they have done with a whole disc of Ifukube orchestral works.

The Ifukube VC1 and 2 are released on the Japanese Fontec label and are out of print (and Fontec is only distributed by Japanese companies). Maybe sometimes a copy will come up on ebay. But there exists a second recording - again on a label which I cannot recall right now. But this is a 2-CD-set containing both Ifukube VCs and some other composers works. You surely can find this recording at www.hmv.co.jp or other Japanese online shops.

[Josquin des Prez]

No, it's not weak. It's an insane theory that Mozart became suddenly a genius when he turned 18!

Insane theory? Maybe he was a victim of what we generally refer to as 'maturity'.

[71 dB]

Insane theory? Maybe he was a victim of what we generally refer to as 'maturity'.

Maturing can have a negative effect on creativity and imagination.

[Josquin des Prez]

Maturing can have a negative effect on creativity and imagination.

That is if you swallow the notion children are really great at creativity and imagination, which is bullshit.

Here:

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=irule

[71 dB]

That is if you swallow the notion children are really great at creativity and imagination, which is bullshit.

Here:

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=irule

Give me a break! Mozart was not a 6 years old kid when composing the Violin Concertos, he was almost an adult.

[Josquin des Prez]

Give me a break!

No!

6 or 18, what's the difference? Most composers rarely reach their full creative powers before 30. Individuals like Mozart or Chopin are an anomaly, not the rule, but neither of them are as precocious as you think. Mozart also as a disadvantage in that the music he grew up with was really not that great in the first place. 

[71 dB]

No!

6 or 18, what's the difference? Most composers rarely reach their full creative powers before 30. Individuals like Mozart or Chopin are an anomaly, not the rule, but neither of them are as precocious as you think. Mozart also as a disadvantage in that the music he grew up with was really not that great in the first place. 

You can think whatever you want. I like early Mozart too. Immatured? Who cares! I like it.

[Josquin des Prez]

I like it.

Point being? It's still inferior.

[71 dB]

Point being? It's still inferior.

I enjoy the music so it does it for me. If you can't enjoy it's "inferiority" that's your problem.

Inferior to what?