Reviews of James Ehnes with the VSO
— Barber, Korngold, Walton violin concertos

Saturday, November 11, 2006

CLASSICAL — CD of the Week
Korngold: Violin Concerto
Barber: Violin Concerto
Walton: Violin Concerto
James Ehnes (violin), Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, cond Bramwell Tovey
ONYX 4016, £12.99

The exceptionally gifted Canadian violinist James Ehnes, who is playing Mendelssohn's early, seldom heard D minor Concerto in Bournemouth and Exeter this coming week, has produced this terrific new CD of three other concertos that are slightly off the beaten track but share the common characteristic of being irresistible.

All three were composed during the late 1930s or early '40s and are quintessentially lyrical, a quality that Ehnes's impeccable style conveys with mellifluous beauty — never succumbing to the temptation to go over the top in, for example, the succulent concerto that Korngold crafted from his film scores, but preserving a winning sense of musical perspective and sensibility.

All three composers tested a soloist's virtuosity, particularly Samuel Barber in the "presto in moto perpetuo" that forms the short but fiendish finale to his concerto; nor was Walton any slouch in the demands he made in the "presto capriccioso alla napolitana" at the centre of the concerto that he wrote on the Amalfi coast.

Mediterranean warmth as well as caprice radiates from Ehnes's performance, and in the other two concertos he gets right to the heart of the music's temperament, nostalgic but with spirited uplift as well. The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra does him proud in establishing vibrant, complementary support. This is a must-have disc. Geoffrey Norris

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Classical CD: Barber, Korngold, Walton
Violin Concertos. Ehnes, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Tovey (CBC)

AND WALTON MAKES THREE: The luscious and popular violin concertos of Samuel Barber and Erich Wolfgang Korngold have been sensibly paired before on CD. Canadian violinist James Ehnes adds William Walton's concerto to make a trilogy of works composed between 1938 and 1945. The Walton, generally more astringent but not immune to romantic rumination, does a nice job of spicing up the experience; its virtual nonexistence on American orchestras' playlists is a shame.

COOL BRILLIANCE: Mr. Ehnes lacks nothing for clean-cut virtuosity, and you'll not hear Barber's perpetual-motion finale tossed off with cooler brilliance. One sometimes craves a bit more warmth, though, in the slow movements; no one will accuse Mr. Ehnes of self-indulgence. The Vancouver orchestra plays ably and responsibly for Bramwell Tovey, its music director since 2000, although the strings aren't the lushest around.

BOTTOM LINE: A really attractive combination of concertos, well played and naturally recorded.

Scott Cantrell

SOUND ADVICE
October 14, 2006

Earlier this year, the Mozart 250 year, Canadian violinist James Ehnes released an excellent 2-CD set of the Violin Concertos by Mozart for CBC Records. You may remember hearing it on SA. Now, just out on CBC Records is another release with James Ehnes. This one contains the Violin Concertos by Samuel Barber, William Walton and Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Bramwell Tovey conducts the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. The Korngold and Barber Concertos are often paired together on recordings. But here, you get those two, as well as the Walton - a nice addition.

But for a series of events, the career of Erich Wolfgang Korngold would've been quite different than how it played out. In Vienna, in the first decades of the 20th C., Korngold was hailed as another Mozart-like genius. In the 1930s, he was hired to write film scores in Hollywood. When the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938, Korngold packed up and moved his entire family to Hollywood. He was a very successful composer, winning two Oscars. But he was never able to conquer the stigma of the film composer — that of the lesser musician who sold out for money. Korngold's concert music slowly grew in popularity after his death in 1957. And it received a good spark of energy in his centennial year, 1997.

The Violin Concerto by Korngold was composed at the urging of the great Polish violinist Bronislaw Huberman. But it was Jascha Heifetz who gave the premiere in 1947 and was the work's first champion.

Korngold borrowed from his own film scores for much of the music. The last movement of the Concerto was based on music from the 1937 film classic, The Prince & the Pauper starring Erroll Flynn.

Here's the finale of the Violin Concerto by Korngold with James Ehnes and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bramwell Tovey.

***Ehnes Cut 3 7:00 CBC Records SMCD 5241

The last movement of the Violin Concerto in D, Op. 35 by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. From a new CBC Records CD, that was James Ehnes with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bramwell Tovey.

Bach, Bruch, Paganini, Dvorak, Kreisler, Mozart — the repertoire list of James Ehnes continues to grow. He's one of today's most flexible and absorbing violinists. He has a gift at adapting to various styles, eras and characters of music. And he's again excellent in these concertos by Korngold, Barber and Walton. Add them to the growing list of accomplishments.

Ehnes's approach to the Korngold Concerto is a bit different from others available. There's less of the dash and swash-buckle of Errol Flynn here, in the outer movements. It's a little more reserved — downplaying the film score aspects of the music and pushing for the concert music side. It's completely valid, I think, but it does take getting used to, at first.

And - Ehnes is very convincing with this approach. He's virtuosic but not flashy. His small, sweet, warm tone wins you over and enhances the more purely musical aspects of this music, and especially in the gorgeous slow movement of the Korngold. Intonation and tuning are once again, near perfect, as are his phrasing and overall musicianship.

Bramwell Tovey and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra seemed to realize the talents of the artist out front, and are right with Ehnes. And the recorded sound from the Orpheum in Vancouver is warm, balanced and bright. With the three concertos included instead of the usual two, it's good value.

No question — highly recommended - five stars.

October 22, 2006

James Ehnes
Violin Concertos by Korngold, Barber and Walton

James Ehnes, violin; Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Bramwell Tovey conducting (CBC ****)

What a great collection of concertos. Each of the three is the sole violin concerto of the composer; all were written about the same time, with similarly thick sonorities, but approached from vastly different cultures - from Korngold's Hollywood-cum-Vienna urbanity to Barber's American emotional earnestness to Walton's gritty British dissonances.

The performances show violinist Ehnes in peak form, full of star quality with his silky tone and almost offhanded ease with the technical fireworks (many of which were written for Jascha Heifetz). Conductor Bramwell Tovey and his Vancouver group stick with Ehnes all the way; even the New York Philharmonic didn't give him such a tight accompaniment in the Walton concerto last season.

- D.P.S.

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