Composer: Béla Bartók, Alban Berg, Max Bruch, Paul Hindemith, Felix Mendelssohn, Jean Sibelius, Igor Stravinsky, Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
Performer: Ivry Gitlis
Orchestra: Wiener Symphoniker, Hamburg Pro Musica Symphony Orchestra, Westphalia Symphony Orchestra, Colonne Concerts Orchestra
Conductor: Heinrich Hollreiser, Jascha Horenstein, Hans Swarowsky, William Strickland, Hubert Reichert, Harold Byrns
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Brilliant Classics
Catalogue: 9145
Release: 2010
Size: 800 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35
01. I. Allegro moderato
02. II. Canzonetta: Andante
03. III. Finale: Allegro vivacissimo
Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26
04. I. Prelude: Allegro moderato
05. II. Adagio
06. III. Finale: Allegro energico
Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47
07. I. Allegro moderato
08. II. Adagio di molto
09. III. Allegro ma non tanto
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64
10. I. Allegro molto appassionato
11. II. Andante
12. III. Allegro molto vivace
Bartók: Violin Concerto No. 2, Sz 112
13. I. Allegro non troppo
14. II. Andante tranquillo
15. III. Allegro molto
16. Bartók: Sonata for Solo Violin, BB 124, Sz. 117
Berg: Violin Concerto ‘To the Memory of an Angel’ (1935)
17. I. Andante – Allegretto
18. II. Allegro – Adagio
Hindemith: Violin Concerto
19. I. Massig bewegte Halbe
20. II. Langsam
21. III. Lebhaft
Stravinsky: Violin Concerto in D
22. I. Toccata
23. II. Aria I
24. III. Aria II
25. IV. Capriccio
Ivry Gitlis was born in Haifa, Israel in 1922. He gave his first recital when he was just nine years old, and was heard by the great Bronislav Huberman, who recommended that he go to Paris to study at the National Conservatory. He won the Premiere Prix at the age of 13, and went on to study with George Enescu, Jacques Thibaud and Carl Flesch. During the Second World War he moved to London, where he was assigned to the British Army artist branch, giving many concerts for Allied troops.
Gitlis has always been a difficult violinist to categorise – maverick, with an unwillingness to conform, he has cultivated a unique style, and is at home in Wieniawski as he is in Xenakis, on prime time TV shows and in the great recital rooms of the world. He is a devoted champion of new music and has premiered works by Maderna and Xenakis. He is also proud of his appearance on The Rolling Stones album ‘Rock and Roll Circus’. Vox made the recordings on this set in the late 1950s and the 60s. The Berg and Stravinsky concertos won a Grand Prix du Disque, and as well as being highly regarded by fellow musicians, were apparently a favourite of Marilyn Monroe.
‘It seems to me, though I should like to have longer to think about it, that Ivry Gitlis gives the finest performance of both the Bartok works above that I have ever heard’ Gramophone, Bartok, 1955
‘Ivry Gitlis is a technical master, and he brings to both the Bruch and Sibelius concertos an address that stands them in very good stead…The Sibelius relaxes less often; and indeed Gitlis’s attack on it is pursued with an intensity and ferocity that are substantially rewarding in their own right’ Gramophone 1956