Michael Rabin (violin)
Unpublished
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Violin Concerto in D major, Op 61 (1806)
Paul Creston (1906-1985)
Violin Concerto No 2, Op 78 (1960)
National Orchestral Association/John Barnett (Beethoven)
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra/Henry Sopkin (Creston)
rec. c.1960, New York, USA (Beethoven); 27 January 1961, Atlanta, USA (Creston)
Parnassus PACD96095 [64]
Though live performances have been released of Michael Rabin playing the Brahms Concerto, this is the first, to the best of my knowledge, to feature the Beethoven. It was taped c.1960 in New York with the National Orchestral Association under John Barnett. This was an efficient training orchestra led by Barnett who had been a student of the founder of the orchestra, Leon Barzin, whom many historically-minded collectors will recall for his live collaborations with Emanuel Feuermann, many of which have been fortunately preserved.
The sound quality is perfectly fine for the period and if one would wish for a top-flight orchestra – the NOA’s wind blending is nervous and there is a lack of refinement throughout – there are strong compensations from Rabin, whose assurance is undoubted, his tone focused and pure, Heifetz-inspired slides firmly in place. The volume level in the second movement might need to be tamed but Rabin’s playing is again tightly trilled and effortlessly secure, his phrasing sympathetic and never cold. The transitional section from this movement to the finale finds his tone more extrovert and variegated, the playing songful and vibrant. You might also need to adjust the volume here though if you do you’ll miss features of his expert negotiation of the cadenza. If there are some passages in the first movement that sound rather Milstein-like in their non-committal quality, Rabin shows a degree of personalisation later on that is undoubtedly attractive.
Rabin premiered Paul Creston’s Second Violin Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and Georg Solti in 1960. A 4-CD Rabin box on Profil features this recording and it’s also in volume 3 of Doremi’s Rabin edition. This Parnassus performance comes from January 1961 with the Atlanta Symphony and Harry Sopkin. This is the fastest one that I know at 22 minutes and it preserves a performance of rich, sensuous lyricism cast in an essentially nineteenth-century conception of a violin concerto. Rabin had selected Creston to write it having been given a Ford Foundation grant, so he presumably knew what he wanted – he’d already performed, to no interest at all, Richard Mohaupt’s old school concerto – and what he wanted was a vehicle for his alluring tonal resources. Rich in virtuosic and lyric expression, with ripe themes and dapper exchanges in the central movement, with its vibrant vernacular B section, it’s played by Rabin with tremendous elegance. The romantic cadenza goes splendidly, and the sprightly, incisive finale goes equally just as well. The sound quality is rather better here than in the Solti performance but if you’re an admirer either of the soloist or of Creston you need one of these live performances.
The documentation is focused, with a useful two-page note. This is certainly of real interest to violin mavens and more especially to admirers of the short-lived Rabin.
Jonathan Woolf
Buying this recording via a link below generates revenue for MWI, which helps the site remain free.
