British and Italian heroes of the violin
This month’s round-up also sees two notable Beethoven collections
It might have been Vivaldi’s Four Seasons that truly made him a household name, but with Nigel Kennedy – The Early Years, 19841989 (Warner Classics 9029535574) we get everything that led up to that landmark recording. Across seven discs, the violinist’s early albums take him from youthful Elgar to vivacious Vivaldi, via his own arrangement of Duke Ellington’s Mainly Black. This set very much represents a journey for the iconic British musician whose dresseddown approach to this music made people sit up and take notice.
Vivaldi leads the pack in Italian Violin Concertos (Dynamic CDS7861.10), a ten-disc celebration of virtuoso works by nine Italian composers and performed by eleven violinists. The Red Priest is joined by Locatelli, Tartini, Bonporti, Lolli, Rolla and Viotti, who each get a disc apiece. Then there’s Paganini, whose works fill two, with Massimo Quarta performing on the legend’s own violin. Other performers include Alberto Martini, Luca Fanfoni and Franco Mezzena. The discs are in a flip-style case, so there are no loose volumes to shuffle.
Beethoven – Legendary Recordings (Sony Classical 19075973752) is Sony’s contribution to the big birthday year. It’s a weighty set of 25 discs, handsomely packaged and a predominantly American affair, too, with nothing but US orchestras and all but two of the recordings (from between 1952 and 2015) taking place there. The programme is fairly exhaustive – the nine symphonies, five piano concertos, overtures, choral works, sonatas – and the cast list features Bernstein, Ozawa, Heifetz and Gould to name but a very few.
If you’d prefer to focus on Ludwig’s keyboard music, then check out Martino Tirimo’s Beethoven – Complete Piano Works (Hänssler Classic PH19032), a decade’s worth of recordings by the pianist, presented over 16 discs.
The sonatas, bagatelles, sets of variations, preludes, dances and alike are laid out in as close to a chronological order as possible, with some creative programming to help the listening experience. As Tirimo says in his insightful liner notes, 42 minutes of continuous dance music might have been a bit much.
Violinist Massimo Quarta plays Paganini’s own instrument