An outstanding version of an apt and rare coupling.
The lightness and resilience of Renaud Capuçon’s playing at the very start of the Mendelssohn, matched by the transparent textures of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra under Daniel Harding, instantly establishes the distinctive character of this latest version of a much-recorded concerto. The urgency of the main Allegro still allows for Capuçon’s crystalline precision in rapid passagework, leading to a flexible account of the second subject.
The lightness and resilience of Renaud Capuçon’s playing at the very start of the Mendelssohn, matched by the transparent textures of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra under Daniel Harding, instantly establishes the distinctive character of this latest version of a much-recorded concerto. The urgency of the main Allegro still allows for Capuçon’s crystalline precision in rapid passagework, leading to a flexible account of the second subject.
Both Kyung-Wha Chung and Joshua Bell are more conventionally rich of tone, particularly Bell, who is markedly slower in the first movement, but Capuçon’s formidable virtuosity ensures that there is no feeling of a small-scale performance. His Andante is fresh and songful; the finale is clear and brilliant without any hint of rush.
The coupling with the Schumann is welcome. It now seems extraordinary that on the advice of Clara Schumann, Brahms and Joseph Joachim, for whom it was written in 1853, this fine if flawed work was locked away until 1937. Philippe Mougeot’s booklet-note attributes its ‘resurrection’ in part to the desire of the Nazi authorities to replace the Mendelssohn concerto which they had banned. Certainly they insisted that the première be given in Germany, yet within months it won its first Jewish interpreter, when Yehudi Menuhin performed it with Barbirolli and the New York Philharmonic.
This performance is also marked by its transparency, not least in the crisp attacks of the accompaniment. Menuhin may vary the tempo less and Gidon Kremer use a wider tonal range, but Capuçon is equally convincing, not just in the first movement but in the hymn-like melody of the slow movement. He is more measured in the finale than either Kremer or Menuhin, articulating the semiquavers of the central episode with utmost clarity. Aided by Harding, the rhythmic resilience of the sharply dotted rhythms prevents any feeling of sluggishness. Vienna’s Jugendstilltheater is the venue for a free and open recording. -- Edward Greenfield, Gramophone
This performance is also marked by its transparency, not least in the crisp attacks of the accompaniment. Menuhin may vary the tempo less and Gidon Kremer use a wider tonal range, but Capuçon is equally convincing, not just in the first movement but in the hymn-like melody of the slow movement. He is more measured in the finale than either Kremer or Menuhin, articulating the semiquavers of the central episode with utmost clarity. Aided by Harding, the rhythmic resilience of the sharply dotted rhythms prevents any feeling of sluggishness. Vienna’s Jugendstilltheater is the venue for a free and open recording. -- Edward Greenfield, Gramophone
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