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| The Art Of Camilla Wicks - Beethoven, Bloch, Sibelius | |||||
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Release Date: 04/26/2005 Label: Music & Arts Programs Of America Catalog #: 1160 Spars Code: AAD Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven, Jean Sibelius, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Ernest Bloch Performer: Camilla Wicks Conductor: Bruno Walter, John Barnett, Arthur Fiedler Orchestra/Ensemble: Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, Standard Symphony Orchestra
Number of Discs: 1 |
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| Notes & Reviews | Back to Top | ||||
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Born in 1928, Camilla Wicks studied during her early years with Louis Persinger, who had served as mentor to two earlier prodigies, Yehudi Menuhin and Ruggiero Ricci. Her subsequent failure to achieve a reputation commensurate with her imposing violinistic and musical abilities, only partially explained perhaps by her repeated withdrawals from regular performance, establishes her as a counterexample to the conventional wisdom that “Genius will out.” Music & Arts has gathered together broadcast performances spanning the period of her early to mid-twenties. Nathaniel Vallois remarks in the booklet that at the time of the performance of Beethoven’s Concerto with Bruno Walter in Carnegie Hall, her pregnancy clearly showed. It certainly didn’t affect her performance: there’s no trace of discomfort or uncertainty. Her playing of Kreisler’s cadenza in the first movement reveals her stupendous technical mastery, but her assurance and decisive command in the Viotti-like passagework throughout the movement, undergirded by Walter’s rugged support, reveals that her musical comprehension equaled her technical mastery. If she doesn’t exhibit a similarly prepossessing personality in the Rondo, that may be due to the first movement’s greater inherent drama. The recorded sound, at times unsteady, still conveys the snap of her bow in Kreisler’s big cadenza in that movement. The announcer’s identifying the second movement of Bloch’s Baal Shem as “Ningun” and placing Wicks in her teens—and some exceedingly sour orchestral intonation near the beginning of the piece—seem almost irrelevant in view of the searching, quasi-mystical intensity of Wick’s reading. She soars vibrantly in this tour de force; yet here, as in her tightly knit reading of the finale of Sibelius’s Concerto from the same Standard Hour broadcast, the engineers captured her so close-up as to impart to her sound (or reveal in it?) an unattractively rough edge that doesn’t appear in her reading of Beethoven’s Concerto. Those performances in May 28th’s broadcast apparently garnered her an invitation to return in July, this time with Arthur Fiedler conducting, for a spirited and, at times, electrifying, performance of the first movement of Tchaikovsky’s Concerto. In this, the engineers have struck a more satisfactory balance; and Wick’s tone, while retaining some of its bite, no longer sounds so feral. Vallois’s notes describe Wicks, at this stage of her career, as one of the “most identifiable” violinists, citing student Jim Pettitt’s remarks on her distinctive intonation. Yet she hardly seems to possess the same degree of individuality as did the great personalities of the time (Heifetz, Oistrakh, Francescatti, Milstein, and even Menuhin come to mind)—although she may nearly equal them in intellect and virtuosity and seemed destined to have developed a similar if not comparable persona. To students of the period, whatever the state of the original recorded sound, Music & Arts’s collection should give testimony to the promise of a stunning young violinist—and the Beethoven Concerto with Walter reveals more than simple promise. Strongly recommended. Robert Maxham, FANFARE |
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| Works on This Recording | Back to Top | ||||
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| 1. |
Concerto for Violin in D major, Op. 61 by Ludwig van Beethoven | ||||
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Performer:
Camilla Wicks (Violin)
Conductor: Bruno Walter Orchestra/Ensemble: Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra Period: Classical Written: 1806; Vienna, Austria |
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Date of Recording: 02/15/1953 Venue: Live New York City |
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| Notes: This selection is a stereo recording. | |||||
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| 2. |
Concerto for Violin in D minor, Op. 47: 3rd movement, Allegro ma non tanto by Jean Sibelius | ||||
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Performer:
Camilla Wicks (Violin)
Conductor: John Barnett Orchestra/Ensemble: Standard Symphony Orchestra Period: Romantic Written: 1903-1905; Finland |
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Date of Recording: 05/28/1950 Venue: Live Los Angeles, California |
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| 3. |
Concerto for Violin in D major, Op. 35 by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky | ||||
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Performer:
Camilla Wicks (Violin)
Conductor: Arthur Fiedler Orchestra/Ensemble: Standard Symphony Orchestra Period: Romantic Written: 1878; Russia |
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Date of Recording: 07/16/1950 Venue: Live San Francisco, California |
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| 4. |
Baal shem: 2nd movement, Nigun by Ernest Bloch | ||||
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Performer:
Camilla Wicks (Violin)
Conductor: John Barnett Orchestra/Ensemble: Standard Symphony Orchestra Period: 20th Century Written: 1923; USA |
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Date of Recording: 05/28/1950 Venue: Live Los Angeles, California |
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| 5. |
Concerto for Violin in D major, Op. 35: 1st movement, Allegro moderato by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky | ||||
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Performer:
Camilla Wicks (Violin)
Conductor: Arthur Fiedler Orchestra/Ensemble: Standard Symphony Orchestra Period: Romantic Written: 1878; Russia |
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Date of Recording: 07/16/1950 Venue: Live San Francisco, California |
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