Sunday, September 22, 2013

Favorite Performances

This is a list of my favorite performances or recordings of the standard violin concerto repertoire, and perhaps a couple that are not yet so standard.  The word “favorite” does not necessarily mean “best,” it just means the one I enjoy the most or the one that speaks to me best or the one I favor for reasons I can’t readily explain.  Just as are my choices of violinists who are profiled here, the list is completely arbitrary.  You will notice that Heifetz figures somewhat prominently and perhaps he would have been named even more times but there are many concertos which he – to the best of my knowledge - never recorded: the Barber, Berg, Dvorak, Haydn, Khachaturian, Mendelssohn 1, Saint Saens 3, Schoenberg, Schumann (!!!), Shostakovich, Stravinsky, and Vivaldi.  Heifetz is named 11 times; Isaac Stern is named 2 times,  Gil Shaham is named 2 times; Michael Rabin is named 2 times; all the rest only once.  Not counting Vivaldi, there are 42 concertos included. I also threw in a few concert favorites which are not concertos but are very frequently played. 

Actor                        Pip Clarke
Bach 1                      Vladimir Spivakov
Bach 2                      Isabelle Faust
Barber                      Elmar Oliveira
Beethoven                Arabella Steinbacher
Berg                         Ivry Gitlis
Brahms                     Jascha Heifetz
Bruch 1                     Isaac Stern
Bruch 2                     Jascha Heifetz
Conus                       Jascha Heifetz
Dvorak                     Joseph Suk
Elgar                        Jascha Heifetz
Glazunov                  Ilya Kaler
Haydn 1                    Judith Ingolfsson
Khachaturian            Leonid Kogan
Korngold                  Jascha Heifetz
Lalo 2                       Joshua Bell
Mendelssohn 1         Yehudi Menuhin
Mendelssohn 2         Gil Shaham
Mozart 3                   Arthur Grumiaux
Mozart 4                   JuliaFischer
Mozart 5                   Jascha Heifetz
Paganini 1                Michael Rabin
Paganini 2                Tedi Papavrami
Paganini 3                Henryk Szeryng
Paganini 4                Uto Ughi
Paganini 5                Salvatore Accardo
Prokofiev 1              Isaac Stern
Prokofiev 2              Jascha Heifetz
Saint Saens 3           Zino Francescatti
Schoenberg              Zvi Zeitlin
Schumann                Frank Zimmermann
Shostakovich 1        Leonid Kogan
Shostakovich 2        Itzhak Perlman
Sibelius                    Jascha Heifetz
Stravinsky                Hilary Hahn
Tchaikovsky            Tossy Spivakovsky
Vieuxtemps 4           Jascha Heifetz
Vieuxtemps 5           Jascha Heifetz
Vivaldi 1-50             Fabio Biondi
Vivaldi 50-100         Giuliano Carmignola
Vivaldi 100-150       Simon Standage
Vivaldi 150-200       Enrico Onofri
Walton                     Jascha Heifetz
Wieniawski I           Gil Shaham 
Wieniawski II         Michael Rabin 
Zigeunerweisen       Joseph Lendvay 
Zigeunerweisen      Arthur Grumiaux 
Zigeunerweisen       Mischa Elman 
Zigeunerweisen       Leila Josefowicz 
Tzigane                    Jascha Heifetz 
Poeme                      Jascha Heifetz 
Rondo Capriccioso Leila Josefowicz 
Bach Chaconne       Viktoria Mullova 

1 comment:

  1. The Vivaldi concertos are really too numerous to keep track of so the rankings and the violinists mentioned with regard to the Vivaldi concertos are tongue-in-cheek references.

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