Tchaikovsky and Korngold - Violin Concertos /Korcia

Korngold / Tchaikovsky - Violin Concertos

Laurent Korcia (Violin) 

Liège Royal Philharmonic Orchestra 

 Jean-Jacques Kantorow

Korngold Violin Concerto, Op 35 & Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, Op 35

This recording of Korngold’s Violin Concerto is one of a number made in recent years, including an identical coupling with the Tchaikovsky from Mutter and Previn on DG. This characterful new account from the French violinist Laurent Korcia need not fear comparison with any of its illustrious predecessors from the stereo era. Korcia shapes the phrases with warmth and affection – but never at the expense of the concerto rolling onward – through subtleties of tone colour and emotional inflection, always observant of the score’s dynamic markings and myriad changes of tempo. In the poetic slow movement, he and the admirable Liège Royal Philharmonic create a cinematic dream world of flickering light (4'03" in) that is little short of spellbinding. In the finale, Korcia makes every note count in the daredevil passages which lead to the thrilling brass peroration, the template for John Williams’s ET score.

As I listened to this open-hearted and expressive interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, the thought crossed my mind that it is the most original such work of the 19th century. From the very beginning, anticipation is aroused by those beautifully phrased opening bars, poised like a dancer waiting for the curtain to rise, as it does in the following passage over a pedal A before the soloist enters. In other words, this performance balances Tchaikovsky’s renowned theatricality with his own instinctive sensibility regarding development. There’s a generosity about this performance that embraces every aspect of the concerto, from the expressive playing of the wind band in the slow movement to the soloist’s down-to-earth manner as he tunes up in the finale’s early cadenza, like a fiddler at the fair. A winning pairing of two irresistible concertos.

Adrian Edwards