Profundity and spiritedness go hand in hand in this Romantic masterpiece
THE STRAD RECOMMENDS
The Strad Issue: November 2024
Description: Profundity and spiritedness go hand in hand in this Romantic masterpiece
Musicians: Vilde Frang (violin) Thomas Hoppe (piano) Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin/Robin Ticciati
Works: Elgar: Violin Concerto; Carissima. Lloyd Webber: The Gardens at Eastwell ‘A late summer impression’ (arr. Soudoplatoff)
Catalogue number: WARNER CLASSICS 2173240942
From her first entry in Elgar’s Violin Concerto Vilde Frang sets out her stall as a purveyor of deep passion, her tone rich and warm with a honeyed vibrato, and employing a freedom with changes of speed and rubato that go further than many in obeying Elgar’s calls for largamente, più lento and the rest. The whole opening paragraph is beautifully crafted, with a thrilling drive to the big tutti. The Lento passage that follows has the exquisite grace of a heartfelt prayer before Frang presses onward with sparkling agility, at times almost playful, light and dancing, at others sheerly mighty.
There is tragedy in the second movement, with feverish tone quarried out of the violin line and pliant, expressive phrasing, muscular at one moment and fragile at the next. She launches into the finale with open-hearted bravura before becoming capricious, sometimes biting, at others sprightly, her playing always superbly articulated. The great cadenza is spacious, expressive and sometimes meditative before the spirited, ebullient finish.
There are two bon-bons to finish: Elgar’s charming Carissima in an arrangement for violin and piano, and William Lloyd Webber’s wistful morsel (originally for flute) The Gardens at Eastwell. The recording is warm, with the violin close.
TIM HOMFRAY
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