Elgar Violin Concerto discography

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Edward Elgar's Violin Concerto was first recorded complete in 1929. Truncated versions had been recorded in 1916 using the acoustic recording process, the technical limitations of which necessitated drastic rearrangement of the score. Electrical recording, introduced in the 1920s, gave a greatly improved dynamic range and realism, and the two leading English record companies, Columbia and His Master's Voice both made recordings of the concerto that remain in the catalogue. The first was made for Columbia by Albert Sammons with the New Queen's Hall Orchestra conducted by Sir Henry Wood. Elgar's own recording with the young Yehudi Menuhin followed three years later. Since then there have been more than twenty-five further recordings, featuring British and international performers.

Contents

Recordings by date

SoloistOrchestraConductorLabelDate
Albert Sammons unnamed Sir Henry Wood Columbia 1916
Marie Hall unnamedSir Edward Elgar His Master's Voice 1916
Albert SammonsNew Queen's Hall OrchestraSir Henry WoodColumbia1929
Yehudi Menuhin London Symphony Orchestra Sir Edward ElgarHis Master's Voice1932
Jascha Heifetz London Symphony Orchestra Sir Malcolm Sargent His Master's Voice1949
Alfredo Campoli London Philharmonic Orchestra Sir Adrian Boult Decca 1954
Yehudi Menuhin New Philharmonia Orchestra Sir Adrian Boult EMI 1966
Aldo Ferraresi Orchestra Sinfonica RAI MilanoPietro ArgentoRhine Classics1966
Gidon Kremer Belgian National Orchestra René DefossezDiscothèque Nationale de Belgique1967
Yehudi MenuhinLondon Philharmonic OrchestraSir Adrian Boult BBC 1969
Hugh Bean Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Charles Groves EMI1972
Pinchas Zukerman London Philharmonic Orchestra Daniel Barenboim CBS 1976
Kyung-Wha Chung London Philharmonic Orchestra Sir Georg Solti Decca1977
Ida Haendel London Philharmonic OrchestraSir Adrian BoultEMI1978
Itzhak Perlman Chicago Symphony Orchestra Daniel Barenboim DG 1981
Igor Oistrakh Moscow State Symphony Orchestra Valentin ZhukOlympia1984
Nigel Kennedy London Philharmonic Orchestra Vernon Handley EMI1984
Ida Haendel BBC Symphony Orchestra Sir John Pritchard BBC1986
Dmitry Sitkovetsky Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Sir Yehudi Menuhin Virgin 1990
Dong-Suk Kang Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Adrian Leaper Naxos 1991
Salvatore Accardo London Symphony Orchestra Richard Hickox Collins Classics1991
Pinchas Zukerman St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Leonard Slatkin RCA 1992
Kyoko Takezawa Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Sir Colin Davis RCA1993
Leland ChenArnhem Philharmonic OrchestraLord MenuhinUpbeat1994
Nigel Kennedy City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Sir Simon Rattle EMI1997
Ilya Grubert Moscow Symphony Orchestra Vladimir Ziva Vista Vera2003
Hilary Hahn London Symphony OrchestraSir Colin Davis DG 2004
Philippe Graffin Royal Liverpool Philharmonic OrchestraVernon HandleyAvie2006
James Ehnes Philharmonia Orchestra Sir Andrew Davis Onyx2007
Gil Shaham Chicago Symphony Orchestra David Zinman Canary2008
Nikolaj Znaider Dresden Staatskapelle Sir Colin DavisRCA2010
Thomas Zehetmair Hallé Orchestra Sir Mark Elder Hallé2010
Tasmin Little Royal Scottish National Orchestra Sir Andrew Davis Chandos 2010
Catherine Manoukian Staatskapelle Weimar Stefan Solyom Edel2013
Rachel Barton Pine BBC Symphony Orchestra Andrew Litton Avie2018
Ning Feng Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Carlos Miguel Prieto Channel Classics Records 2018
Thomas Albertus IrnbergerRoyal Philharmonic Orchestra James Judd Gramola 2019
Nicola Benedetti London Philharmonic Orchestra Vladimir Jurowski Decca2020
Triin Ruubel Estonian National Symphony Orchestra Neeme Järvi Sorel Classics2020
Renaud Capuçon London Symphony Orchestra Sir Simon RattleErato, Warner Classics 2021
Vilde Frang Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin Robin Ticciati Warner Classics 2024

Critical opinion

The BBC Radio 3 feature "Building a Library" has presented comparative reviews of all available versions of the concerto on three occasions, and recommended as follows:

The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music , 2008, gave its maximum four star rating to none of the recordings of the concerto. It awarded three stars (representing "an outstanding performance and recording") to the recordings by Graffin, Heifetz, Kang, Kennedy (1984 and 1997), Menuhin (1932 and 1966), and Sammons (1929). [6]

Notes

  1. ↑ Takezawa "Building a Library" BBC Radio 3, accessed 24 October 2010
  2. ↑ Menuhin "Building a Library" BBC Radio 3, accessed 24 October 2010
  3. ↑ Sammons "Building a Library" BBC Radio 3, accessed 24 October 2010
  4. ↑ Zukerman "Building a Library" BBC Radio 3, accessed 24 October 2010
  5. ↑ "Elgar Violin Concerto" Archived 2012-04-01 at Archive-It BBC podcast, 14 January 2012
  6. ↑ March, pp. 425–28

References

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