PASC042:
Double Concerto in A minor for Violin, Cello & Orchestra,
Op. 102 - Brahms
MP3
price
Jean
Fournier (violin)
Antonio Janigro (cello)
Vienna State Opera Orchestra
Conductor: Hermann Scherchen Recorded:
1952
Released as Westminster LP 51-17
Download ID: 194446, 381652
Duration
32.06"
Play
sample movement:
Brahms
wrote his Double Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra in 1887
- it was to be his final orchestral work, and it came into being largely
as a 'peace offering' to the violinist Joachim. The two former friends
had not spoken for several years, but after the first performance in Cologne
in October, 1887, with the composer conducting, Joachim and the cellist
Robert Hausmann soloing, Brahms told an acquaintance: "Now I know
what it is that's been missing in my life for the past few years... It
was the sound of Joachim's violin."
However
the initial response to the concerto was lukewarm, and Brahms quietly
smothered drafts he'd made for a second double concerto, having his own
doubts about the piece and his abilities. Eventually Joachim did come
round to admiring the piece, but it was never fully embraced by the public
during Brahm's lifetime, and the requirements for two soloists have hampered
regular performances ever since. Commenting some 68 years later in The
Record Guide, Sackville-West and Shawe-Taylor wrote:
Brahms's
last orchestral work does not immediately communicate its magic to the
listener who has learned to love the younger lyrical Brahms. At first
it may sound grey and unbending. On closer acquaintance there is revealed
a rich vein of humanity and a lovely incandescent glow...
This
recording, featuring the talents of Fournier and Janigro, well
represented here in their Piano Trio with Paul Badura-Skoda, with a Viennese
orchestra some of whom may have been old enough to remember Brahms walking
the city, is presented in fine sound from the magical studio of disk2disc,
where Peter Harrison has once more worked his sonic alchemy.
