The world's most romantic concerto – free classical download #7
mainOne of the year’s amazements was a recording of the Mendelssohn concerto by a Canadian violinist. I never thought I’d use those four nouns in close conjunction. The Mendelssohn is the sweetest of concertos – a speciality of Heifetz, Milstein, and the rest of the Odessa odyssey – and Canadians are not famed either for their sentimentality or for their fiddlers.
Before James Ehnes came along, I cannot easily name a Canadian violinist of world rank – except for Leila Josefowicz, maybe. But Ehnes is a case apart and in this recording he stakes a claim to join the greats. See what you think when you click here:
http://www.onyxclassics.com/normanlebrecht/ONYX4060-3.mp3.zip
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor op.64 – III Allegretto non troppo –
Allegro molto vivace
He is accompanied by Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Philharmonia Orchestra; the companion piece on the Onyx disc is Mendelssohn’s marvellous Octet.
This is amazing! I’ve already been watching Ehnes because we’ve received other releases of his at WCNY-FM. However, this is something else again! I have heard way too many violinists getting this “right but rote,” doing their duty by the old warhorse but not putting enough of themselves into it. This has sincere emotion, not schmaltz or a feeling of contractual obligation to play the chestnut because the record label says so. Instead, in the spirit of the season, this chestnut has plenty of open fire! The precision is amazing, too–every note in place, not glossed over for the sake of speed. The audio’s depth was a nice way to break in the new computer speakers I got for Christmas. And, finally, we ladies thank you for including the photo! We don’t celebrate Boxing Day in the U.S., but thank you for this present, Norman!