Henri Vieuxtemps - Violin Concertos Nos. 5, 6 & 7 (Misha Keylin)

Information

Composer: Henri Vieuxtemps

• Violin Concerto No. 5 in A minor "Gretry", Op. 37
• Violin Concerto No. 6 in G major, Op. 47
• Violin Concerto No. 7 in A minor, Op. 49

Misha Keylin, violin

Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra / Andrew Mogrelia, conductor

Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra / Takuo Yuasa, conductor

Date: 2003

Label: Naxos

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Review

Young Misha Keylin completes his cycle of the Vieuxtemps Concertos with this release, capping a most successful series. I interviewed this virtuoso in early 2000 for another publication and found him a most engaging and intelligent artist. Here he leads off with Vieuxtemps' most popular Concerto, the Fifth, with its lopsided structure: a dramatic first movement of more than fifteen minutes duration followed by a short Adagio and an even shorter finale, which together last just over five minutes.

The young Russian-born, U.S.-based artist's effort here challenges the best recordings in this work, which include that of Heifetz, who dispatches the concerto nearly four minutes faster! Keylin's first movement cadenza is tastefully rendered, balancing virtuosity with a keen sense of drama. His Adagio is lovely and brimming with passion, while the diminutive finale is delightfully bouncy, but also muscular, coming across as a sort of extended coda, rather than a bona fide movement.

Keylin tackles the lighter and lengthier Sixth with the right mixture of energy and sunshine and he treats the Seventh more in the spirit of the dramatic Fifth. And he doesn't shortchange the work's virtuosic character, his playing fully up to every technical challenge – try the first movement buildup near the middle, which reappears near the end. In many ways, I liked the Seventh best of all these concertos, though most listeners will prefer the Fifth. The orchestral support in all three concertos is generally compelling, fully competitive with most versions of these concertos by bigger-name ensembles. Naxos provides excellent sound and intelligent notes.

— Robert Cummings

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Henry Vieuxtemps (17 February 1820 – 6 June 1881) was a Belgian violinist and composer. A prodigy, he studied with Charles Auguste de Bériot in Brussels, Simon Sechter in Vienna and Anton Reicha in Paris before touring extensively across Europe and the United States. He held teaching positions in St. Petersburg and Brussels. Renowned for his exceptional technical precision and rich tone, Vieuxtemps became one of the leading virtuosos of the 19th century, and his style was widely emulated. As a composer, he was equally innovative, with his violin concertos making important contributions to the development of the form.

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Misha Keylin (born 1970 in St. Petersburg, Russia) is a Russian-American violinist. After immigrating to the United States at nine, he studied under Dorothy DeLay at Juilliard. Keylin made his Carnegie Hall debut at age 11 and later performed there as a soloist with the New York String Orchestra under Alexander Schneider. He has won numerous competition prizes and performed in over 40 countries. Widely recognized for his recordings of Henri Vieuxtemps' works for Naxos, Keylin also maintains a broad repertoire spanning Baroque to contemporary music, including major violin concertos by leading composers.

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