Sibelius - Violin Concerto [Marcovici/ Jarvi-The Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra]This compact disc comes from Boots the Chemist, yes they actually delved into Classical music, and produced their own range of exclusive discs, of course these all were re-issues from other labels back catalogues, this one is a BIS recording, but they weren't merely Handel's Messiah and Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture stuff, they really had some inventive titles, and certainly here's one, coupling the Sibelius's Violin Concerto with his Tapiola, but also giving us three other short orchestral works that are off the beaten track, and well worth getting to know, even Sibelius's lesser known works are fantastic, i played this while walking through the park on the way to Church, a lovely hot summers day.
Silvia Marcovici is Romanian, born in 1952, she recorded this work in 1985, and Boots can actually make some nice booklet covers as well, this one features a really nice painting of a lighthouse in rough seas, though sadly the Painter is not credited in the notes.
Well i am seriously starting to feel that Sibelius's Violin Concerto is quite possibly my favourite in this form, and it vies for top spot with Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole, i enjoyed the whole of this Concerto immensely today, there were many moments in the first movement that stood out as wonderful highlights, but amazingly the central slow movement was even better!, i love the woodwind idea at the very start, two clarinets in duet, and then replied in echo by two oboes, and then played again as a full quartet [0:00-0:36], fairly abstract and bleak, a perfect foil for when the violin comes in, when the first forte arrives, it's from the orchestral lower strings [3:10-3:47], i just love the way the trumpets reply [3:20+], and then the strings repeat their phrase even louder, with timpani in the background for great effect [3:24+], and then the brass repeat theirs again, this time joined by the rest of the orchestra [3:34+], a really clever inventive moment, the violin then creates a real intensity with faster and faster bowing [4:28-4:45], culminating in a ravishing high treble outburst [4:45-5:14], which slowly dies away down into rhapsody [5:14+], it's the central kernel to this wonderful movement, but it builds up again [6:01-6:33] until it explodes into another satisfying forte, right at the end the violin has a tender closing passage [7:42-8:11], what a gut wrenching middle movement, so full of all sorts of intensity, Marcovici is excellent throughout, and the recording is superb.
Here's Silvia Marcovici playing the slow movement on YouTube.
