Wednesday, 20 February 2013

Bruch - Violin Concerto 1 [Udagawa/Mackerras-London Symphony Orchestra] 

Bruch's Violin Concerto is a real regular in my Blog, though this is the first time i've played this actual disc, Udagawa is not exactly teeming with discs to buy, but i don't know why she hasn't made more discs, it's good to get yet another angle on this work from two Artists, and it's a good solid performance, the Bruch has a nice searing intensity to it, it's a work that never outstays its welcome, i never get bored of it, even if i do listen to it fairly often.

Hideko Udagawa is Japanese, though she now makes her home in England, she made this disc in 1989, the front cover [photo by Hanya Chlala] shows Udagawa seated with her gown spread out, a nice photo.

I was in heaven listening to the central Adagio, there's a real intensity of passion there, slowly building up and up, quite a straight reading at first, but Udagawa breathes more and more drama into it, and towards the end there's a passage of full blown passion [5:17-5:46], and then right at the end there's a meek and simple rendering of the main tune [6:57-7:55], which rises for a while, but ends subdued into pathos, the acoustic has a slight tendency to sound a little far away.

Here's Joshua Bell playing the middle slow movement on YouTube.

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