Your Online Shop for Classical Music
Read reviews, listen to the music, and purchase the CD BRAHMS / BRUCH: Violin Concertos
Narrow your search
Classical Music
Ballet
Chamber Music
Choral
Concertos
Film Music
Folk Legends
Instrumental
Musicals
Opera / Operetta
Orchestral
Vocal
Chamber Music
Choral
Concertos
Film Music
Folk Legends
Instrumental
Musicals
Opera / Operetta
Orchestral
Vocal
Recently Released
Upcoming Releases
Special Offers
NaxosDirect Audio
Other Genres:
Audio Books
Anthologies / Collections
Classic Fiction, Modern Classics & Contemporary Fiction
Classical Music Audio Books
Drama
Junior Classics and Children's Favourites
Non-Fiction
Poetry
Samplers
Shakespeare
Classic Fiction, Modern Classics & Contemporary Fiction
Classical Music Audio Books
Drama
Junior Classics and Children's Favourites
Non-Fiction
Poetry
Samplers
Shakespeare
Blues Legends
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
DVD
Gospel Legends
Jazz
Naxos Label
Naxos American Classics
Naxos Best Of...
Naxos Books
Naxos Box Sets
Naxos Cinema Classics
Naxos Classics
Naxos DVD
Naxos DVD-Audio
Naxos Instrumental
Naxos International
Naxos Jazz
Naxos Limited Edition
Naxos Milken Archives
Naxos Night Music
Naxos Opera
Naxos Orchestral
Naxos Samplers
Naxos Special Release
Naxos Wind Band Classics
Naxos World
Naxos Best Of...
Naxos Books
Naxos Box Sets
Naxos Cinema Classics
Naxos Classics
Naxos DVD
Naxos DVD-Audio
Naxos Instrumental
Naxos International
Naxos Jazz
Naxos Limited Edition
Naxos Milken Archives
Naxos Night Music
Naxos Opera
Naxos Orchestral
Naxos Samplers
Naxos Special Release
Naxos Wind Band Classics
Naxos World
Nostalgia
Other Genres
SACD
We Recommend….
World
Ballad
Bhuddist
Chinese Music
Classical (World)
Early Music (World)
Folk
Gamelan
Gypsy
Hindustani
Jazz (World)
Klezmer
Vocal (World)
World
Bhuddist
Chinese Music
Classical (World)
Early Music (World)
Folk
Gamelan
Gypsy
Hindustani
Jazz (World)
Klezmer
Vocal (World)
World
BRAHMS / BRUCH: Violin Concertos
£6.99
£4.99
(CD)
In Stock - Usually ships within 48 hours.
Max Bruch (1838 - 1920)
Violin Concerto No.1 in G minor, Op. 26
Violin Concerto No.1 in G minor, Op. 26
Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897)
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77 Cadenza by Fritz Kreisler
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77 Cadenza by Fritz Kreisler
Max Bruch's G Minor Violin Concerto
continues to enjoy wide popularity, while much of his music remains unknown to modern audiences. He was born in Cologne in 1838, the son of a Government official and a mother who was well known as a teacher and singer. He was himself to enjoy a reputation as both conductor and composer, and was for a time conductor of the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, before taking up a similar position in Breslau. From 1891 until his retirement in 1910 he was entrusted with the composition master-class at the Berlin Musikhochschule, an appointment of considerable prestige.
continues to enjoy wide popularity, while much of his music remains unknown to modern audiences. He was born in Cologne in 1838, the son of a Government official and a mother who was well known as a teacher and singer. He was himself to enjoy a reputation as both conductor and composer, and was for a time conductor of the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, before taking up a similar position in Breslau. From 1891 until his retirement in 1910 he was entrusted with the composition master-class at the Berlin Musikhochschule, an appointment of considerable prestige.
The G Minor Violin Concerto avoids
traditional form, its first movement a Prelude that opens with a
quasi-improvisatory passage for the soloist. There is a second, contrasting
theme in B flat major, and some development of this material, before the
second, slow movement, which follows without a break. Here the violin opens
with a melody of great emotional intensity, in the key of E flat, providing the
main source of thematic material for the movement.
A brief linking passage leads us safely
to the finale in the key of G major and the entry of the solo violin in a mood
that must remind us of the last movement of the concerto by Brahms. This
opening forms the principal theme of the movement, although further
opportunities are provided for the soloist, with rapid passage-work as well as
a typically forceful romantic theme.
Bruch showed his concerto to Brahms and
played it through to him, with a great deal of enthusiasm and sweat. The older
composer, not known for his tact, stood up when the performance was over and
walking over to the piano took a sheet of the score, feeling it between fingers
and thumb and remarking "Where do you buy your music paper? First rate!" The
concerto has impressed other listeners rather more deeply.
Johannes Brahms was born in Hamburg in
1833, the son of a double bass player and a woman thirteen years his senior,
who kept a small haberdasher's shop. It seemed at first as if he might follow
his father's relatively humble profession as an orchestral player, but his
ability as a pianist and as a composer, the latter ability fostered by his
generous teacher Marxsen, suggested higher ambitions. After a period of hack
work, teaching and playing in dockside taverns, he had his first significant
success in a tour with the Hungarian violinist Remenyi in 1853. Friendship with
the violinist Joachim led to an unproductive visit to Liszt in Weimar and to a
more fruitful meeting with Schumann, now established in Duesseldorf as director
of music. It was Schumann who detected in the young musician a successor to
Beethoven, a forbidding prognostication. Brahms was to continue his
relationship with Clara Schumann after her husband's breakdown and subsequent
death in 1856.
It was not until 1864 that Brahms settled
finally in Vienna, having failed to realise his first ambition for recognition
in his native Hamburg. In Vienna he became an established figure, known for his
tactlessness and occasional rudeness, but proclaimed by his friends the
champion of pure music against the eccentricities of Liszt and Wagner, a role
which his four great symphonies did much to reinforce. He died of cancer in
April, 1897, at the age of 64.
Brahms completed his Violin Concerto
in 1878 and dedicated it to his friend Joseph Joachim. The relationship with the violinist was later to suffer through the composer's lack of tact, when he tried to intervene in a dispute between Joachim and his wife, the singer Amalie Joachim, who brought evidence of her husband's faults of character in a letter written to her by Brahms. The breach was in part repaired by the later composition of the Double Concerto for violin and cello in 1887, a peace offering.
in 1878 and dedicated it to his friend Joseph Joachim. The relationship with the violinist was later to suffer through the composer's lack of tact, when he tried to intervene in a dispute between Joachim and his wife, the singer Amalie Joachim, who brought evidence of her husband's faults of character in a letter written to her by Brahms. The breach was in part repaired by the later composition of the Double Concerto for violin and cello in 1887, a peace offering.
Following his usual custom, Brahms worked
on the Violin Concerto during his summer holiday at Poertschach, where
in 1877 he had started his Second Symphony. The first performance of the work
was given in Leipzig on New Year's Day, 1879, with Joachim as the soloist. The
concerto combines two complementary aspects of the composer, that of the artist
concerned with the great and serious, as a contemporary critic put it, and that
of the lyrical composer of songs. As always Brahms was critical of his own
work, and the concerto, long promised, had been the subject of his usual doubts
and hesitations. Originally four movements had been planned, but in the end the
two middle movements were replaced by the present Adagio, music that Brahms
described as feeble but that pleased Joachim as much as it has always pleased
audiences.
The first movement opens with an
orchestral exposition in which the first subject is incompletely presented in
the initial bars. Its full appearance is entrusted to the soloist, after the
orchestra has offered a second subject and other themes that will later seem
eminently well suited to the solo violin. The actual entry of the soloist and
the approach to it must remind us of Beethoven's Violin Concerto, with
its rather longer orchestral exposition that had so taxed the patience of
Viennese audiences seventy years earlier. The cadenza Brahms left to Joachim,
whose advice on this and other matters he was willing to heed. In this
recording, Takako Nishisaki plays the cadenza by Fritz Kreisler. The slow
movement is splendidly lyrical, based on a melody of great beauty, which is
expanded and developed by the soloist and the orchestra, dying away before the
vigorous opening of the Hungarian-style finale. This, in rondo form, is of
great variety, intervening episodes providing a contrast with the energetic
principal theme, leading to a conclusion of mounting excitement.
Takako Nishizaki
Takako Nishizaki is one of Japan's finest violinist. After studying with her father, Shinji Nishizaki, she became the first student of Shinichi Suzuki, the creator of the famous Suzuki Method of teaching children to play the violin. Subsequently she went to Japan's famous Toho School of Music and to Juilliard in the United States, where she studied with Joseph Fuchs.
Takako Nishizaki is one of Japan's finest violinist. After studying with her father, Shinji Nishizaki, she became the first student of Shinichi Suzuki, the creator of the famous Suzuki Method of teaching children to play the violin. Subsequently she went to Japan's famous Toho School of Music and to Juilliard in the United States, where she studied with Joseph Fuchs.
Takako Nishizaki won Second Prize in the
1964 Leventritt International Competition (First Prize went to Itzhak Perlman),
First Prize in the 1967 Juilliard Concerto Competition (with Japan's Nobuko
Imai, the well-known viola-player), and several awards in lesser competitions.
She was only the second student at Juilliard, after Michael Rabin, to win her school's coveted Fritz Kreisler Scholarship, established by the great violinist himself.
She was only the second student at Juilliard, after Michael Rabin, to win her school's coveted Fritz Kreisler Scholarship, established by the great violinist himself.
Takako Nishizaki is one of the most
frequently recorded violinists in the world today. She has recorded ten volumes
of her complete Fritz Kreisler Edition, many contemporary Chinese violin
concertos, among them the Concerto by Du Ming-xin, dedicated to her, and a
growing number of rare, previously unrecorded violin concertos, among them
concertos by Spohr, De Beriot, Cui, Respighi, Rubinstein and Joachim. For Naxos
she has recorded Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Mozart's Violin Concertos
Nos. 3 and 5, Sonatas by Mozart and the Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky,
Beethoven, Bruch and Brahms concertos.
The Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra
The Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra has benefited considerably from the work of its distinguished conductors. These included Vaclav Talich (1949 - 1952), Ludovit Rajter and Ladislav Slovak. The Czech conductor Libor Pesek was appointed resident conductor in 1981, and the present Principal Conductor is the Slovak musician Bystrik Rezucha. Zdenek Kosler has also had a long and distinguished association with the orchestra and has conducted many of its most successful recordings, among them the complete symphonies of Dvorak.
The Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra has benefited considerably from the work of its distinguished conductors. These included Vaclav Talich (1949 - 1952), Ludovit Rajter and Ladislav Slovak. The Czech conductor Libor Pesek was appointed resident conductor in 1981, and the present Principal Conductor is the Slovak musician Bystrik Rezucha. Zdenek Kosler has also had a long and distinguished association with the orchestra and has conducted many of its most successful recordings, among them the complete symphonies of Dvorak.
During the years of its professional
existence the Slovak Philharmonic has wori(ed under the direction of many of
the most distinguished conductors from abroad, from Eugene Goossens and Malcolm
Sargent to Claudio Abbado, Antal Dorati and Riccardo Muti.
The orchestra has undertaken many tours
abroad, including visits to Germany and Japan, and has made a large number of
recordings for the Czech Opus label, for Supraphon, for Hungaroton and, in
recent years, for the Marco Polo and Naxos labels. These recordings have
brought the orchestra a growing international reputation arid praise from the
critics of leading international publications.
Stephen Gunzenhauser
The American conductor Stephen Gunzenhauser was educated in New York, continuing his studies at Oberlin, at the Salzburg Mozarteum, at the New England Conservatory and at Cologne State Conservatory. His period at the last of these was the result of a Fulbright Scholarship, followed by an award from the West German Government and a first prize in the conducting competition held in the Spanish town of Santiago.
The American conductor Stephen Gunzenhauser was educated in New York, continuing his studies at Oberlin, at the Salzburg Mozarteum, at the New England Conservatory and at Cologne State Conservatory. His period at the last of these was the result of a Fulbright Scholarship, followed by an award from the West German Government and a first prize in the conducting competition held in the Spanish town of Santiago.
During the last two decades, Gunzenhauser
has enjoyed a varied and distinguished career, winning popularity in particular
for his work with the Delaware Symphony, an orchestra which he has recently
conducted on an eight-concert tour of Portugal.
For the Marco Polo label Stephen
Gunzenhauser has recorded wori(s by Bloch, Lachner, Taneyev, Liadov, Gliere and
Rubinstein, and for NAXOS Tchaikovsky's Symphony No.5, Beethoven Overtures, the
Borodin Symphonies and the Saint-Saens Organ Symphony and Rachmaninov's Second.
He is currently engaged in recording all the symphonies and symphonic poems of Dvorak also for NAXOS.
He is currently engaged in recording all the symphonies and symphonic poems of Dvorak also for NAXOS.
Disc 1
- I. Prelude: Allegro moderato - 08:06
- II. Adagio - 08:08
- III. Finale: Allegro energico - 07:43
- I. Allegro non troppo - Cadenza - Tempo I - 13:45
- II. Adagio - 08:53
- III. Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace - Poco piu presto - 08:30
Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26 (more info)
Performed by:
Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra
Composed by: Max Bruch
Conducted by: Stephen Gunzenhauser
Takako Nishizaki, violin
Recording date: 22-27 May 1989
Produced by: Appenheimer, Gunter
Composed by: Max Bruch
Conducted by: Stephen Gunzenhauser
Takako Nishizaki, violin
Recording date: 22-27 May 1989
Produced by: Appenheimer, Gunter
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77 (more info)
Performed by:
Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra
Composed by: Johannes Brahms
Conducted by: Stephen Gunzenhauser
Takako Nishizaki, violin
Recording date: 22-27 May 1989
Produced by: Appenheimer, Gunter
Composed by: Johannes Brahms
Conducted by: Stephen Gunzenhauser
Takako Nishizaki, violin
Recording date: 22-27 May 1989
Produced by: Appenheimer, Gunter
Sign up for our newsletter!
FREE POSTAGE AND PACKING ON ALL ITEMS
We distribute exclusively within the UK only
Subscribe to our newsletter and unlock Naxos Rewards by creating an account. Create your account here.
See all of our great site features here.
FREE POSTAGE AND PACKING ON ALL ITEMS
We distribute exclusively within the UK only
Subscribe to our newsletter and unlock Naxos Rewards by creating an account. Create your account here.
See all of our great site features here.
Composer(s)/ Author(s):
Brahms, Johannes; Bruch, Max
Conductor(s):
Gunzenhauser, Stephen
Orchestra(s):
Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra
Artist(s):
Nishizaki, Takako
Label: Naxos Classics
UPC: 730099519526
Item Number: 8550195
Release Date: Jan 1, 2001
Brahms, Johannes; Bruch, Max
Conductor(s):
Gunzenhauser, Stephen
Orchestra(s):
Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra
Artist(s):
Nishizaki, Takako
Label: Naxos Classics
UPC: 730099519526
Item Number: 8550195
Release Date: Jan 1, 2001
Customers who bought BRAHMS / BRUCH: Violin Concertos also bought:
.................................................................
.................................................................
.................................................................
.................................................................
.................................................................
.................................................................
.................................................................
.................................................................
.................................................................
.................................................................
