Rozsa/Korngold: Violin Concerti
Matthew Trusler, violin. Dusseldorf Symphony/Yasuo Shinozaki
Orchid Classics 100005
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

The great Jascha Heifetz inspired many composers and a future of hopeful virtuosi.  His name and legacy perhaps are a far distant memory with those in a younger generation more focused on the like of Joshua Bell or Gil Shaham.  Matthew Trusler is the soloist on this new release from his own label and playing a 1711 Stradivarius.  The disc features music identified with Heifetz (who premiered the Korngold after its dedicatee declined) including three little encores to round off a full album.  Both the main works on this release come from the pens of two of Hollywood’s giant Golden Age composers.  With a talent such as Heifezt’s definitive RCA recordings on the books, it has taken a while for the pieces to gain a new generation of performers.  The steep climb to awareness this recording has (new label, unknown artists) should not deter anyone from what is a truly amazing release featuring great performances and an awesome recorded sound.

The Rozsa Violin Concerto is familiar to fans of the film The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) where its material played a key part in the score.  Robert MacDuffie with the Atlanta Symphony is a good contemporary yardstick with a cheaper Naxos release allowing for a cheaper, though no less finer introduction to the work.  Rozsa’s piece is melodically engaging and comes out of a strong Hungarian music tradition that melds the folkish romanticism of Kodaly with Bartok’s more angular writing.  It is a harmonically fascinating work which holds its own against the virtuosic displays of its soloist.  Trusler’s performance enfolds a bit more lyrically than MacDuffie’s which adds about a minute more to its total playing time.  His playing is as committed as one could hope for and the Dusseldorf Symphony is captured in perfect clear sound in committed and near perfect performance support.   The performance of this 1956 work is commanding and Shinozaki proves to be a formidable and nuanced conductor.  The Rozsa concerto deserves its place among other mid-century post-romantic violin pieces.  In Trusler’s committed performance we get to hear how great a piece this really is—strong enough to stand next to more performed Shostakovich and Prokofiev concerti from the period. 

Trusler has a lot more competition in the Korngold concerto which seems as if it cannot receive a bad recording and continues to be featured in unique couplings often with standard repertoire.  Korngold’s concerto, unlike Rozsa’s, is constructed from thematic ideas from several of his film scores from the 1930s (Another Dawn, Juarez, Anthony Adverse, and The Prince and the Pauper).  His rich orchestral style is part of his Post-Romantic Austrian roots, the like of which are paralleled in the music of Richard Strauss.  The word is still out on just how one approaches this concerto.  Previn, the conductor in both the Mutter and Shaham recordings preferred much faster tempi.  John Mauceri’s approach on the Entartete Musik series for Decca, featuring Chantal Juillet, is a closer companion to Trusler’s interpretation as can be seen by a quick comparison of the playing times of the four performances below:

After the Rozsa, one gets literally dropped into the gorgeous soundworld of Korngold.  This is a concerto that feels as if we have just been dropped in on its materials.  The magical flourishes and gorgeous orchestration just grabs a hold of the ear and draws the listener in as the soloists has an almost improvisational obbligato idea that occasionally floats above the orchestral sections or takes on parts of the melody.  Trusler’s high register playing is simply flawless here with remarkable tone control.  The little emotional slides to pitches, a hallmark of the style, are dexterously performed without overemphasizing them.  The music’s impassioned first movement structurally feels like a big improvisational arabesque that continues the dissolution of form we can hear in Strauss.  The recording here is helped by a remarkable clarity that places the soloist in a comfortable audio placement against the orchestra allowing it to blend into that texture when needed or soar above it as well.  Once again, the orchestra provides perfect accompaniment with great acoustic detail in the recording making this one of the better recorded Korngold concerto releases.

To round off the already impressive album, Trusler has chosen three miniatures.  Two of these are Heifetz’s own arrangements of popular pieces: Ponce’s Estrellita and Foster’s Jeannie With the Light Brown Hair.  These are sandwiched around the pops-like Jamaican Rumba by Arthur Benjamin as arranged by William Primrose.

If you missed the Telarc label’s Rozsa disc, or even if you think you have your favorite Korngold concerto recording, the present release will be a welcome addition to fans of these two great Hollywood composers.  This is beautiful music making impeccably performed and taken on its own merits.  Highly recommended!

Most of July has been filled with week long commitments including a moving mission trip to Queens, NY.  As I tend to fill my office day with music, the two weeks without some music can be a bit overwhelming though not causing too much withdrawal!  The final week of the month allowed a bit of "recovery" and "rest" that was filled with a few musical surprises.  If you are keeping track of the plethora of new film score re-issues from the many private labels you know that you may have to play the lottery just to keep up with so many great releases seeming to come from every side, the biggest being the release of Alex North's Spartacus on a massive package from Varese Sarabande!  This month though the five "great" releases are mostly classical releases and you will see reviews of most over the coming days here on the blog.  Yes, I finally figured out how to delay posts so that I can avoid double posting that buries reviews if I do them all the same day now.

The one film score that stood out this month is Film Score Monthly's 2-disc release of Star Trek III-The Search for Spock.  This comes on the heels of their release of the second ST installment and now allows James Horner fans a chance to hear the musical connections between both scores.  Though not a big Horner fan, his two Star Trek scores were seminal to the establishment of his career as a film composer after his Battle Beyond the Stars.  That score and these Star Trek ones all appeared on the now defunct GNP label so it is likely we may see further of these releases forthcoming from FSM. 

Continuing with film music connections for a moment, we switch to an outstanding new release featuring violinist Matthew Trusler.  This is one of the first times the violin concerto of Miklos Rozsa and Erich Wolfgang Korngold appear to have been paired on a single release and this allows one to hear their distinct musical and concert music approaches in quick succession.  The release is on Orchid Music, Trusler's own label.  The disc brings together these two monumental concerti premiered by the great Jascha Heifetz along with three smaller, and delightful encores.  Trusler's performances are awesome and his orchestral support is perfect.  There are plenty of fine recordings of the Korngold out there and adding this one will give you yet another though without doubling up on warhorse repertoire.

Next up is an alert for a chance to experience some great music by another unfairly neglected composer.  Fans of the MN Orchestra's days under Eiji Oue will be glad to pick up this latest CPO release featuring Music for Left-Hand Piano by Franz Schmidt (reviewed this coming week here).  The CD features two monumental pieces composed for Paul Wittgenstein, a noted pianist who lost his right arm in WWI and commissioned a number of works (Ravel's concerto being the most-played of the lot).  The opening Concertante Variations are an engaging collection of variations running through a bolero, fugato, landler, and more with gorgeous orchestration.  The disc includes a 43-minute piano concerto that is no less engaging.  Easily recommended to fans of Bruckner (though Schmidt's music tends to be a bit more focused and coherent), Strauss, or even Mahler.  Check back this week for a more detailed review.

Two more familiar works on two different CDs round off my best of the month list for July.  Both are by American orchestras at the top of their game.  First up is yet another stunning recording from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Resound label.  Ein Heldenleben may not be ones first Richard Strauss work to grab off the shelf but Bernard Haitink's vision for this work on this new release may simply be one of the finest captured on disc and is a fitting memento to his final season as the CSO's conductor.  The live recordings also feature a fascinating lesser known Webern orchestral piece that comes before his shift toward serial composition.

Finally, give your audio system a perfect workout with the new Pentatone Classics release of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.  The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra shines in this performance conducted by Marek Janowski.  The performance is committed and well-recorded with amazing detail for the many solo instrumental sections and fantastic brass playing that never blares or overwhelms the music.  Check the review for more details.

I suspect that next month will be harder to pick just five releases with the many limited editions that are on their way and a host of great music to yet be discovered.  This month's choices should give everyone plenty to explore in the warm days of summer.