Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921)
Violin Concerto no. 3 in B minor, op. 61
Alexander Glazunov (1865-1936)
Violin Concerto in A minor, op. 82
Rudolf Koelman (violin), Sinfonietta Schaffhausen/Peter K. Haag
rec. 2021, St. Johann Church, Schaffhausen, Switzerland
Challenge Classics CC72951 [46]
In many ways, this is a natural coupling: two challenging but abundantly lyrical violin concertos written within a generation of each other, and each constituting one of its composer’s finest – and certainly best-known – works. Hence it came as something as a surprise to discover that, as far as I call tell, the two concertos have never appeared on the same disc before. In fact, according to the CD’s back insert, the connection drawn between them by the soloist Rudolf Koelman is as much personal as musical. He was taught by Jascha Heifetz, no less, who “learnt Glazunov’s Concerto directly from its dedicatee, Leopold Auer, and performed it several times with Glazunov himself conducting” – and who also told Koelman that, at the time of his 1963 recording of the Glazunov, “he would really have liked to record the Saint-Saëns B minor Concerto as well, but somehow it did not happen”.
In some ways I wish I had not known in advance that the disc was seen as a kind of reconstruction of an LP that Heifetz never quite made – though I suppose it does make one a bit more tolerant of the decidedly ungenerous playing time. Inevitably, however, it also makes one expect to find some Heifetzian elements in the performances – and they are certainly there. On the plus side, Koelman (former leader of the Concertgebouw and noted pedagogue, as well as experienced soloist) is clearly, like his teacher, a virtuoso of the highest order. He does not merely negotiate, but triumphs effortlessly over the many technical difficulties presented by both works; his intonation is wholly flawless, and his vibrato expressive and sagely controlled. It comes as no surprise to discover that he has also recorded Paganini’s 24 Caprices and first two Violin Concertos. For sure he could have them for breakfast, too. On the less positive side, though, I found that his performances also had a certain Heifetz-like relentlessness, an absence of give and take, light and shade – something which is probably accentuated by a recording which places Koelman rather far forward, can give his tone a slightly glassy edge, and tends to prevent the listener from perceiving his playing as truly quiet.
All of this means that, taken as a whole, both performances are high on excitement and technical brilliance, but not always as nuanced or indeed individual as some. Above all, they lack charm. Koelman can certainly do passion, as he shows to great effect in Glazunov’s glorious andante, but both composers, perhaps especially Saint-Saëns, require of the soloist a certain late-Romantic suavity, or urbanity, which isn’t to the fore here. A case in point is Saint-Saëns’ central andantino quasi allegretto. Here, one can certainly admire the fluency and accuracy of Koelman’s playing, and the fact that he takes the tempo marking genuinely seriously (not too slow), but the phrasing is a bit plain, the atmosphere a bit austere, and I at least felt myself longing to be seduced by a genuine violinistic charmer like, I don’t know, Capuçon, Grumiaux, or ,of course Perlman.
In many ways, then, Koelman’s performance has the strengths of its weaknesses, and vice versa. The orchestral support under Paul K. Haag is alert and stylish, if not always recorded with optimal clarity. Tully Potter’s booklet note is both informative and entertaining; I certainly didn’t know that the 13-year-old Heifetz’s fee for performing the Glazunov Concerto with its composer in 1914 was a bicycle! Overall, though, the coupling is competitive in a crowded field only if you particularly admire the soloist or his accompanying forces, or if you want this specific coupling. For everyone else, performances at least as good as this can be found elsewhere, on discs that cost less and contain a good half-hour’s more music.
Nigel Harris
Help us financially by purchasing from
