First Concertos

Dear Friends,

I thought the piano idea was quite good so here are a few concerto recomendations.

Bach:
Brandenberg Concertos. HM Linde EMI or Virgin.
Violin Concertos, in A minor and E major and Double Concerto in D minor. Oistrack or Grumiaux on DG and Philips
Keyboard Concertos. A good start will be found in the performances of JM Pires on Erato, or the complete set with Perahia on Sony

Handel:
Organ Cocertos. I recently found a set that seems to get the measure of the music. MC Alain with Paillard Chamber Orchestra, originally on decca, but now out on Boston Skyline, which is a small USA company that re-releases grand efforts that somehow have slipped beneath the horizon, often because the material is wonderful and yet not eccentric enough to have made a real media hit. Their catalogue contains some absolute gems. [Two separate CDs].

Haydn:
Trumpet Concerto in E flat. The best records (IMO) have been done by Maurice Andre, Haakon Hardenberger, and (my favourite) Ole Edvard Antonsen.

Mozart:
Clarinet Concerto: This never seems to get a bad performance, so no reason to recomend one over another!
Piano Concerto No 23 in A. There are about 12 at this level! Start here and move out! Haskil and Solomon both made splendid recordings. Perahia is among the best in the stereo era, but rare are the performances that fail.
Horn Concertos. Start with Dennis Brain's set on EMI. Slightly less charming but just as sitisfying is Alan Civil's set with the great Otto Klemperer. One can almost hear the great man smiling at his wonderful soloist. Not sure if this is currently available, but if you see it get it!

Beethoven:
The Violin Concerto is something of a gem, and yet it only ges better with further aquaintance. Try Oistrack or Josef Suk for great musical insights, though you will go a long way to find a poor performance.
Piano Concertos; Start with Number Four. Stephen Bishop is among the best and at budget price, whilst this music has attracted the attention of the great pianist of every generation. Todd, maybe you would like to recomend your favourite. Mine is Schnabel from 1933, but then that is not an obvious recomendation to a beginer!

Mendelsohnn and Bruch: [Together because of the ususal coupling].
You will find these two composers on issues of the their two greatest Violin Concertos. Again, no amount of aquaintance will ever dull the brilliance of the music.

Dvorak:
Cello concerto in B Minor.
The conventional wisdom is that Rostropovich with Karajan is THE recording. I actually profoundly disagree with this, and R recorded it several times. The best is mono with V Tallich on Supraphon, and the best after that is with Boult in Stereo on EMI. My favourite is Fournier on EMI (out on a splendid transfer of the 1947 78s on Testamente), which is terribly faithful to the miriad of markings in the score, and manges to sound as if it was also totally spontaneous. Fournier is said to have retained an affection for this performance all his life.

Brahms:
Violin Concerto:
Oistrack, Klemperer on EMI have the measure of it. Don't think that this is going to be slow or dogged. In fact it seems that Klemperer is the one with the pulse and forward drive and Oistrack the one with the poetry! From the archives, Fritz Kreisler provides another more charming and altogether different "old world" view that may acyually be musically closer in spirirt to what Brahms had in mind. The 1927 record from Berlin are a model of musical balance if not really the last word in tonal fidelity, even if the violin sounds pretty marvelous!
Piano Concertos. Start with the D Monor (No One), and get Curzon with George Szell with the LSO on Decca. It really is the best in every department.

Sibelius:
Violin COncerto. This is not as tough as it might sound and you are bound to get a nice coupling, from someone like Tchaikowsky. My favourite is Grumiaux, but Oistrack is just as fine, but the one I have is in mono (and coupled with the Bach set, swo you might kill two birds with one stone!). The best Heifetz is the one with Beecham done in London. The LPO were probably the best Orchestra in Britain in the 1930s and Beecham was not overfaced with his temperamental soloist. This is one of those once in a lifetime type performances (on EMI).

Elgar:
Violin Concerto:
Menuhin, of course, made the famous set with the composer, but if you are going to delve into the historic, then consider Albert Sammons, who recorded it two and a half years earlier with Henry Wood. (Out on Pearl) This is what Elgar rather charmingly described as a "good" performance, while if you get past the crumbly recording, what you get is one of the greatest Elgar recording - full stop! Of the moderns, avoid Heifetz. Elgar detested his reading: "The man does not know how to cry inside, without showing it on his sleeve." In the stereo era Hilary Hahn has got a good press, but I personally think the best is Alfredo Campoli on a late 1950s recording with Boult, but it only appears occasionally at super-budget on Decca.

Again I hope other will contribute further I ideas. I have refrained froma list of all myu favourite Concertos, but tried to do a starter set of recomendations, any ONE of which would make a fine start. So the absense of something only means that I think a better start may be made elsewhere. Maybe next week I'll do Starter Symphonies, and Starter Chamber Music, or even Starter String Music. Do other feel this would be useful?

Fredrik