Glazunov - Violin Concerto [Udagawa/ Klein-London Philharmonic Orchestra]
I have been late coming to the Glazunov Violin Concerto, but only less than a month ago with Josefowicz [24th August 2011], i was enjoying this Concerto as finally unfolding and flowering, again i feel there's a certain 'Rodrigo - Fantasia Para Un Gentilhombre' about it, i like the fanfare trumpets that start the third movement, i've always looked upon this Concerto as slight because it's short, about 21 minutes, but that's how long the Rodrigo work lasts, which is quite a major work, maybe it's the first movement here, Beethoven and Brahms created mammoth opening movement statements of 20 minutes plus, but here Glazunov gives us a little over 4!, can it really be taken seriously?, but it is a lovely work, some of the best things come in small packages [Chopin - Etudes?], and it's been a joy getting to know this work more.
Hideko Udagawa is Japanese, she isn't a name that automatically rolls off your tongue as a 'regular' in the Violin circuit, i don't know why she hasn't cut into the more well known names, she's good, but her discography isn't excellent, in some ways this is a strange disc, because it takes a whole Concerto, and places it alongside shorter Concertante works, it would have been more logical to either couple it with another Concerto, or to make a disc full of short Concertante works, but here we're given half of one and half of the other, the front cover [photo by Hanya Chlala] is certainly colourful, i like IMP's rainbow logo.
On this listen i certainly liked the last two movements, and since i spoke of the last movement a month ago, i thought i would delve into this middle movement, in many ways it's the core of the work, it lasts roughly the same amount as the other two outer movements put together,
Here's Hilary Hahn playing the second movement on YouTube.
