New Philharmonia Orchestra

Itzhak Perlman, New Philharmonia Orchestra, Jesus Lopez-Cobos – Bruch: Scottish Fantasy; Violin Concerto No. 2 (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 58:33 minutes | 1,03 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Warner Classics

These two works for violin by Max Bruch owe a great deal to Jascha Heifetz, who was really the first to champion them and, most importantly, the first to record them: the Scottish Fantasy in 1947 and the Second Concerto in 1954. Itzhak Perlman, who has often acknowledged Heifetz’s influence on his taste in and choice of repertoire, recorded both works early in his career (1976) before returning to them a decade later (see volume 40). The Concerto in D minor, Op.44 was written for the great Spanish virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate, who gave its premiere in London in November 1878. Overshadowed, as was No.3, by Bruch’s First Violin Concerto, Op.26, it soon fell into neglect. It is, however, a work full of innovative touches, such as the choice of an Adagio to open the concerto, in place of the conventional Allegro, or the instrumental recitative that follows and both harks back to the first movement and anticipates the finale. Despite its dramatic gestures and the beauty of the solo part, however, this second work failed to match its predecessor’s success. Heifetz’s recording, as well as that made a few years later by Mischa Elman (1956), played an essential role in establishing its place in the repertoire.
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