Notes and Editorial Reviews
MOZART
Violin Concertos: No. 1; No. 4
•
Michael Antonello (vn); Richard Haglund, cond; Erato CO
•
MJA (no number) (49:39)
In
Fanfare
33:6, I reviewed violinist Michael Antonello’s recording of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Third and Fifth Violin Concertos with Philip Greenberg and the Milano Classica Orchestra as part of a feature interview. Now he’s adding to the set with recordings of the composer’s First and Fourth Concertos, this time with Richard Haglund
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conducting the Erato Chamber Orchestra (in St. Paul’s Church in Chicago on March 24 and 25, 2010).
The recorded sound in the church has an opulent bloom but also allows for abundant clarity transmitting both the orchestra’s cleanliness and its rich warmth, although the soloist appears near the middle of the orchestral sound rather than close to the foreground. Antonello’s entry in the Fourth Concerto, which opens the program, marks this performance as showcasing perhaps the most crisply articulated playing in his Mozart cycle, yet he’s also resonantly commanding in the second theme’s lower register (and his bow bites into the string when he moves from the upper strings to the lower ones). In fact, he maintains the instrument’s sonority throughout the first movement’s ubiquitous passagework. And he achieves an almost orchestral sonority in the cadenza and its plethora of double-stops. Antonello and Haglund give a heartfelt account of the slow movement that’s nevertheless hardly romanticized, though it’s hardly a period-instrument-inspired one, either. Antonello soars in the middle section and makes the cadenza sound more like
bel canto
than bald technique. The finale, which Antonello and Haglund take at a decently quick tempo (all the movements in this recording seem to be in
tempo giusto
—neither too fast nor too slow, with no straining after either thrilling effect or bathos), effectively points up the contrasts of the duple and triple meters. I’ve thought about comparisons with performances by the golden-age violinists I believe Antonello admires, but he’s less mannered than Jascha Heifetz (and certainly than Mischa Elman), and less robustly folklike than Isaac Stern—and better recorded than any of them. And that’s a mouthful. (Of course, Arthur Grumiaux always lurks ominously in the background of any such comparison, but Antonello gives him competition in his home court—elegant and eloquent Mozart.)
In the First Concerto’s opening Allegro moderato, conductor and soloist adopt a moderate tempo, indeed. But Antonello seems to take this as an opportunity to make his 1720 Rochester Stradivari sing, and he thereby reveals an aspect of the movement that can be lost in a whirlwind—it’s genial and smiling rather than brusquely hurried. Haglund sets the slow movement in motion at an engaging tempo, and trains a spotlight on the violinist’s entry. Antonello, for his part, plays this movement as though it possessed the satin suavity of the Third Concerto’s Adagio, and could convince a first-time listener that it does. Several times, slight pauses help set up phrases; the performance never sounds routine or derivative (not even in several portamentos that unquestionably sound like nobody else’s). Such pauses have to be calibrated exactly, just as do a comedian’s, or their effect is lost. Antonello’s always seem to work. Some violinists (like Anne-Sophie Mutter) play the last movement as a sudden sprint to the finish; Antonello again seems neither too fast nor too slow—fast enough for the runs to bustle up and down and slow enough for listeners to hear the crispness of his articulation. A questionable double-stop near the cadenza’s beginning provides the program’s only uneasy moment.
Antonello seems to possess a strong affinity for Mozart. If some of his other CDs have occasioned attempts to play off their obvious sincerity and musical eloquence against technical shortcomings, these readings require no such play of hands at the same time giving and taking. The direct and personal music-making of the others shines through here without any passing clouds. Those who have admired Antonello’s earlier efforts should be ecstatic about these. Anyone—and everyone—might be happy to include this release in a collection of any kind. Having lived through the hoopla of the Royal Wedding today, I might suggest that it’s the jewel in Antonello’s crown. Strongly recommended.
FANFARE: Robert Maxham
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Works on This Recording
1.
Concerto for Violin no 1 in B flat major, K 207 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performer:
Michael Antonello (Violin)
Conductor:
Richard Haglund
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Erato Chamber Orchestra
Period: Classical
Written: 1775; Salzburg, Austria
2.
Concerto for Violin no 4 in D major, K 218 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performer:
Michael Antonello (Violin)
Conductor:
Richard Haglund
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Erato Chamber Orchestra
Written: 1775
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