Karol Szymanowski; Benjamin Britten - Violin Concertos (Frank Peter Zimmermann)

Information

Composer: Karol Szymanowski; Benjamin Britten

• Szymanowski - Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 35
• Szymanowski - Violin Concerto No. 2, Op. 61
• Britten - Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 15

Frank Peter Zimmermann, violin

Warsaw National Philharmonic / Antoni Wit, conductor

Swedish Radio Symphony / Manfred Honeck, conductor

Date: 2008

Label: Sony Classical

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Review

This is one terrific CD. It’s interesting that German violinists seem to be taking on the Szymanowski concertos: we have recent releases from Zehetmair, Tetzlaff, Steinbacher, and now Frank Peter Zimmermann. He may well be the best of them all. The First concerto is more popular than the Second, though they are equally attractive. Of the two, the First is perhaps the tougher work to play well. It’s a genuine “hothouse flower” of a piece: lush, luxurious, atmospheric, and passionate. It requires a soloist with a beautiful basic tone, absolute security above the staff, and great care in matters such as vibrato and portamento: it should sound enticingly decadent but never vulgar.

This is exactly what Zimmermann provides. His intonation is impeccable, his pianissimo exquisite, and his use of portamento is always expressively apt. In the slower music he phrases the long, lyrical lines with unaffected songfulness, and where Szymanowski says “marcato” the rhythms turn precise but never stiff, the tone never rough.

All of these qualities carry over into the Second concerto. Its folk inspiration and more rugged rhythms allow for a more gutsy attack on the instrument, and Zimmermann obliges, particularly in the last two movements. He also has, in Antoni Wit and the Warsaw Philharmonic, the world’s best interpreters of Szymanowski’s orchestral music. So it really doesn’t get any better than this.

Zimmermann moves to Sweden for the Britten concerto, an interesting and apt coupling that’s just as successful as the two Szymanowski works. It’s not that there’s any stylistic similarity between the two composers–merely that both wrote successful modern violin concertos that sound well together and make for a varied and attractive program. This is a beautiful performance. Manfred Honeck and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra accompany with complete confidence, and Zimmermann sounds totally at home in the music. He offers plenty of virtuosity in the central Vivace, and the final passacaglia builds to a powerful climax. The quiet coda is pure poetry. In the first two movements Zimmermann and Honeck are fractionally quicker than in Britten’s own recording–excitingly so–and virtually identical in the finale.

The engineering is also excellent, different recording venues notwithstanding. This disc may not be available in all territories: evidently it was too interesting to be deemed worthy of international release, so if you can’t find it locally, do what I did and order it from a good German online retailer.

— David Hurwitz

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Karol Szymanowski (3 October 1882 – 29 March 1937) was a Polish composer. Born in present-day Ukraine, he studied music in Warsaw and developed his career through four main periods, producing influential compositions while travelling throughout Europe and the United States. In 1927, he became director of the Warsaw Conservatory, where he sought to reform music education and encourage a new generation of Polish composers. Despite suffering from tuberculosis and significant health challenges, Szymanowski achieved international recognition with major works such as Stabat Mater, King Roger and Harnasie.

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Benjamin Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was a leading British composer, pianist and conductor. Trained at the Royal College of Music, he gained early acclaim with Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge and achieved international prominence with the opera Peter Grimes (1945). His major stage works include Billy Budd, The Turn of the Screw, and Death in Venice, alongside innovative church parables such as Curlew River. Co-founder of the Aldeburgh Festival, he also composed celebrated song cycles, choral works including the War Requiem, and notable orchestral and chamber music.

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Frank Peter Zimmermann (born 27 February 1965) is a German violinist. A prodigy, he began playing at age five and debuted with orchestra at ten, later studying with prominent teachers in Germany and the Netherlands. Since launching his international career in 1983, he has performed with major orchestras worldwide and collaborated with renowned conductors. His repertoire spans from J.S. Bach to contemporary composers, with particular affinity for Mozart and Prokofiev. An active chamber musician, he co-founded Trio Zimmermann. His extensive, award-winning discography covers major violin works.

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