Bartok - Violin Concerto 2 [Tetzlaff/Gielen-The London Philharmonic]
Bartok is one of my 'problem' Composers, certain Composers are really hard to get into, hard to understand, their works aren't easy to like, there's complexities galore within his works, yes i can hear good stuff too, the architecture of pieces are hard to fathom at times, Bartok for me can be like a poem in a different language that i can barely grasp, i can see that there's something to really fall in love with here, i just can't seem to get over this language barrier, this is the fourth time i've listened to this disc, and the second time it's appeared in my Blog [23rd January 2011], plus i have a few other recordings too, so i guess i've extensively listened to this work, my 'fear' is that i'll give up on this work, when there's treasures to be had for those that put the time and effort in to come to know it, plus i believe if i can surmount this work, then it can be used as a 'bridge' to access other 'hard' works, don't get me wrong, i did enjoy this music today, and i did understand it enough, but i'm still baffled by it at the same time.
Christian Tetzlaff is German, he's now 49, this work was recorded in 1990, so already 25 years old, and Tetzlaff was half the age he is now, the front cover is superb [by Frank Behrend], a warm glow of a picture, full of browns and oranges, with a lovely highlight on the violin, and a jet black background, the cream and white lettering really stands out on this background, the finished product is excellent.
Well i have to say it's again the first movement that i felt that i'm closest to cracking, it without doubt has one of the most ingenious introductions for a work, a strumming on the harp, and pizzicato strings [0:00-0:16], my only problem with this recording is that it's a bit too quiet, and then in comes the violin, and has a tendency to go all over the place, at times it's hard to follow the musical language, but the initial opening violin musings give way to a major strong orchestral tutti [1:44-2:02], but it's language of chopping and changing all over the place continues, fast music is interspersed with slow reflective stuff, there's one of these mysterious passages three minutes in [3:06-4:03], ghostly strings, oboes too, but like everything else comes to an abrupt end, all sorts of strange sound are created by Bartok, angry trumpets [4:43-4:49] with growling brass, sounds just pop out of nowhere to almost 'scare' you, is Bartok creating some sort of 'zoo' of sounds, quiet woodwinds weave a spell of magic [5:20+], and a little later the basses do the same [5:51-5:58], and then out of nowhere the violin plays frantic fast music [7:01-7:32] while the brass and percussion reply tersely, totally out of character to what came before, and develops into superfast bowing by Tetzlaff [7:32-7:50], with the same brass / percussion stabbings, there's this kaleidoscopic feel to the whole thing, if you know how a kaleidoscope works, twist the barrel slightly, and a whole new image appears, there's a cacophony of trumpets / brass [9:21-9:51], really well done, the violin has some downward sour glissandos [10:41 / 10:44 / 11:21], Bartok throws everything into the crazy stew, and at times the violin can sound somewhat like it's being tuned up [12:08-12:38], and into the cadenza, in the finale there's percussive effects from the strings [15:21-15:28], i guess the problem i have with it all is that the movement is built up like separate jigsaw pieces, each looks really nice on its own, it's fitting them all together i find doesn't work properly!, but i'll keep persevering, i understood it more on this listen than ever before.
Here's Kyung Wha Chung playing this Concerto on YouTube.
Christian Tetzlaff is German, he's now 49, this work was recorded in 1990, so already 25 years old, and Tetzlaff was half the age he is now, the front cover is superb [by Frank Behrend], a warm glow of a picture, full of browns and oranges, with a lovely highlight on the violin, and a jet black background, the cream and white lettering really stands out on this background, the finished product is excellent.
Well i have to say it's again the first movement that i felt that i'm closest to cracking, it without doubt has one of the most ingenious introductions for a work, a strumming on the harp, and pizzicato strings [0:00-0:16], my only problem with this recording is that it's a bit too quiet, and then in comes the violin, and has a tendency to go all over the place, at times it's hard to follow the musical language, but the initial opening violin musings give way to a major strong orchestral tutti [1:44-2:02], but it's language of chopping and changing all over the place continues, fast music is interspersed with slow reflective stuff, there's one of these mysterious passages three minutes in [3:06-4:03], ghostly strings, oboes too, but like everything else comes to an abrupt end, all sorts of strange sound are created by Bartok, angry trumpets [4:43-4:49] with growling brass, sounds just pop out of nowhere to almost 'scare' you, is Bartok creating some sort of 'zoo' of sounds, quiet woodwinds weave a spell of magic [5:20+], and a little later the basses do the same [5:51-5:58], and then out of nowhere the violin plays frantic fast music [7:01-7:32] while the brass and percussion reply tersely, totally out of character to what came before, and develops into superfast bowing by Tetzlaff [7:32-7:50], with the same brass / percussion stabbings, there's this kaleidoscopic feel to the whole thing, if you know how a kaleidoscope works, twist the barrel slightly, and a whole new image appears, there's a cacophony of trumpets / brass [9:21-9:51], really well done, the violin has some downward sour glissandos [10:41 / 10:44 / 11:21], Bartok throws everything into the crazy stew, and at times the violin can sound somewhat like it's being tuned up [12:08-12:38], and into the cadenza, in the finale there's percussive effects from the strings [15:21-15:28], i guess the problem i have with it all is that the movement is built up like separate jigsaw pieces, each looks really nice on its own, it's fitting them all together i find doesn't work properly!, but i'll keep persevering, i understood it more on this listen than ever before.
Here's Kyung Wha Chung playing this Concerto on YouTube.
