Benjamin Britten & William Walton: Violin Concertos (1978) Reissue 1992
Ida Haendel (violin); Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Paavo Berglund
EAC | FLAC | Tracks (Cue&Log) ~ 270 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 152 Mb | Scans included
Genre: Classical | Label: EMI Classics | # CDM 7 64202 2 | Time: 01:02:27
Ida Haendel (violin); Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Paavo Berglund
EAC | FLAC | Tracks (Cue&Log) ~ 270 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 152 Mb | Scans included
Genre: Classical | Label: EMI Classics | # CDM 7 64202 2 | Time: 01:02:27
Ida Haendel’s sinewy and athletic reading of the often under-rated Britten combines toughness with a cumulative dramatic impetus which is hard to resist. Berglund and the Bournemouth players respond with a terse and argumentative vigour, suitably balanced between resignation and defiant rhetoric, especially in the closing Passacaglia. The Walton Concerto, also dating from 1938-9, is played with an apposite blend of inscrutable panache, as in the irrepressibly brilliant central movement, and elsewhere, a sensuous, if occasionally over-indulgent languor. Rare lapses in the finale can be safely overlooked, in a performance of eloquence and undisputed stature.