© WAYNE PRINTING CORP.

1964
 PHS 900-050
STEREO
MONO PHM 500-050
PHILIPS
STRAVINSKY
MOZART Violin Concerto No. 1 in B flat major, K.207 (1775)
BERNARD HAITINK conducting the
Two concertos— STRAVINSKY’S CONCERTO FOR VIOLIN is one of his most
striking works and yet one may wonder whether he would
one evocative, have produced it had not incentive arrived in the shape of
one explorative a commission. Vlad, a biographer of Stravinsky, reports
that he agreed after “some hesitation” and this hesitation
is attributed to Stravinsky’s fear that Dushkin, the violinist
who offered the commission (through an intermediary)
was no more than the type of theatrical virtuoso he partic-
ularly dislikes. A rendezvous with Dushkin quickly allayed
misgivings. Composer and player worked in close collab-
oration and the result was not just one violin concerto but
also the slightly later Duo Concertante for violin and piano.
Still it would be wrong to conclude that Stravinsky’s
compositions subsequent to these works provide evidence
that he has, in any sense, “discovered” the violin. What-
ever doubts he felt initially may have been deeper than
merely an instinctive withdrawal from vulgar showman-
ship, for virtuoso violin-writing presupposes certain styl-
istic criteria and whether Stravinsky much favors these is
questionable. Running through the often bewildering di-
versity of his work is a special pre-occupation with hyp-
notic rhythms, with fastidious ensemble color (which
makes him favor wind instruments), and with elegantly
constructed harmonies of intricate harshness. Obviously,
interests of this sort call for certain forces naturally
equipped to express them and the enlistment of all others
under terms of special duty—the piano, for example, in a
mainly percussive and chordal role. But no voice has less
affinity for these concerns than the virtuoso violin. Its
free, rhapsodic agility openly stresses melodic line at the
expense of rhythm, its lean overtones make it unsuitable
as a coloring agent, and its natural portamento scarcely
encourages its participation in “static” harmonic tableaux.
In undertaking his commission, therefore, Stravinsky
was testing his strength on a novel sort of problem: the
problem of reconciling to the particular attributes of his
style a leading voice essentially alien to it. Happily, Stra-
Brief notes DAVID OISTRAKH IS ONE OF THE GREATEST
alive today. He was born at Odessa in the Ukraine in 1908
about the artists and began to study with Pjotr Stoliarsky at the age of five.
Under his teacher’s severe discipline Oistrakh’s first public
appearance was deferred until he was twelve, although he
could have played, with success, long before then. By the
time he was graduated from Odessa Conservatory in 1926
he had acquired an almost unlimited technique on the vio-
lin and the viola, also an extensive knowledge of chamber
music and other works in the violin literature. Internation-
al acclaim soon followed. The recitals he gave in France,
the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, and elsewhere after his
New albums MOZART Violin Concerto
No. 3 in G major, and Violin
Concerto No. 5 in A major. Arthur Grumiaux,
from Philips London Symphony, Colin Davis conducting. PHM
012 mono, PHS 900-012 stereo —
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DAVID OISTRAKH, violinist
Violin Concerto in D major (1931) -
' TOCCATA, ARIA E ARIA U CAPRICCIO
ALLEGRO MODERATO, ADAGIO, PRESTO
LAMOUREUX ORCHESTRA
vinsky’s greatness, in an age of arbitrary musical forms, is
based on the ideal solution of specific artistic puzzles. It is
the firm and honest confrontation of an intellectual chal-
lenge which, in fact, most warmly stimulates his creative
reactions, and the high quality of the violin concerto was
achieved not despite the challenge but because of it.
The first and last movements are called Toccata and
Capriccio respectively, and these titles provide some clue
as to their improvisatory style. Significantly, there is no
real thematic development of the kind which the violin’s
clean linear gestures indicate so readily in the classical
works. The phrases adopted by the soloist have a rhythmic
Schwung which emphasizes the nimble elasticity of solo
movement rather than forward flow and beneath this an
ostinato pulse—particularly noticeable in the finale—tends
to dominate, keeping the music (as someone has said of
Stravinsky’s ostinato in another context) “on one spot.” In
this way, the violin, surrounded by a winking halo of wind
voices, appears to prance on a fixed stage.
Quite different are the two central movements, marked
Arial and Aria II. Here, the composer has committed him-
self firmly to cantabile. Aria II almost literally “releases”
the soloist; tall, chromatic chords are intermittently
sounded and from these, the protagonist glides forward in
a series of smooth, romantic episodes. Their frank lyri-
cism, in both Arias, hints at Stravinsky’s solution for the
slow movements: a deliberate evocation of nineteenth-
century wistfulness, an impassive contemplation of a van-
ished style.
No attempt has been made to relate the composers on
this record; the contrasts between them are far more inter-
esting. Stravinsky has lacked the stimulus of living within
accepted conventions; rather, his way has been to meet
each problem separately, determining shape and scoring
individually for each task. Mozart was perhaps more for-
tunate in finding himself surrounded by a rich variety of
VIOLINISTS victory in the Ysaye Concours at Brussels in 1937 turned
into a triumphal progress and laid the foundations for the
reputation he enjoys today. At present he is in charge of
the violin department at the Moscow Conservatory. He
also tours and records extensively, and of course holds a
list of honors and distinguishing awards far too lengthy to
mention here.
Bernard Haitink was born in Amsterdam in 1929. After
studying conducting and violin he made his first public
concert in the former capacity with the Radio Philharmon-
ic Orchestra during the 1956 Holland Festival. In January
1957 he was appointed principal conductor of that orches-
BEETHOVEN Sonatas for Piano and Violin, complete in
violin; four albums. David Oistrakh, violin; Lev Oborin, piano.
500- Volume I, Nos. 5 and 7; Volume II, Nos. 9 and 10; Vol-
ume III, Nos. 1, 3, and 6. Volume IV to be released shortly.
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maturing but by no means exhausted forms through which .
to elaborate an idiom. Hence his work is “conventional”
in the very best sense.
The violin concerto, for example, was no more than a
hundred years old when Mozart took it up. In the rich,
expressive dialogue between solo voice and orchestra, we
still find the residual link with opera, and in the fresh de-
livery of themes as well as the unselfconscious way they
are developed, the sense of excitement offered by a,medi-
um which is still relatively new, supple and unexplored. In
a sense, it is to be regretted that Mozart chose to fulfill the
concerto’s highest possibilities on the piano rather than the
violin (not unprompted by external circumstances, of
course) for the five violin works he produced in 1775, of
which K. 207 is the first, are all achievements of excep-
tional beauty. The slow movements, particularly, touch
depths that for a boy of nineteen seem far out of reach.
All three movements employ the usual tutti opening in
which the full orchestra (consisting of strings, horns and
oboes only) supplies the thematic material. This tutti, or
parts of it, is periodically brought back and the violin’s
essential task is to assert its superiority by virtuoso elabo-
ration. The extra demands Mozart makes of himself are
to dovetail solo and orchestral parts into a nexus of inter-
dependence that both stresses the violin’s solo role and
gives the orchestra more than a mere “accompanying” part.
A few points from the lovely slow movement should
adequately typify the style. Here, the themes given out by
the orchestra have such inherent beauty that the violin’s
subsequent embroidery seems simply a kind of haunted
affirmation of their quality. When they are re-introduced,
the soloist can do no more than hold a long pedal note.
The orchestra also appears to possess its own melody—a
wistful, lilting air which completes the string of themes—
and the soloist only plays it in full at the end. But in be-
tween—as repeated listening will reveal—this too has pro-
vided the basis for virtuoso decoration.
tra. In 1957 he conducted for the first time in the United
States at concerts of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Then
followed tours with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, the
orchestra of the Wurtemberg State Theatre, the Hague
Philharmonic, and others. In 1961 he became associated
with the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam as one
of two chief conductors, and in 1964 it was announced
that he had been appointed conductor and musical direc-
tor. One of the most unusual tributes to that appointment
was an invitation to Haitink and the Concertgebouw Or-
chestra to participate in the opening days of the 1964 New
York World’s Fair.
BACH Sonatas and Partitas for Unaccompanied Violin
(complete). Arthur Grumiaux. Two disks in one sleeve.
PHM 2-500 mono, PHS 2-900 stereo
_ PRINTED
IN U.S.A.
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