A double-CD of Romantic Violin Concertos celebrating the art of Ruggiero Ricci, this set includes the first international release on CD of the Ricci/Boult 1952 recording of the Beethoven. Boult characterised it as ‘perhaps the most thoughtful concerto, the one which needs for the violinist to be a great man as well as a great player’. Indeed it is a thoughtful and poised reading from both soloist and conductor, coupled with classic accounts of the Mendelssohn, Bruch and Dvorak. The booklet notes by Tully Potter include a biography of Ricci and (sometimes wry!) comments by the violinist himself on the recordings.
CD1
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61*
FELIX MENDELSSOHN
Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64**
CD2
MAX BRUCH
Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26+
ANTONIN DVORAK
Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 53++
Ruggiero Ricci, violin
London Philharmonic Orchestra*
Adrian Boult*
Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra**
Jean Fournet**
London Symphony Orchestra+
Piero Gamba+
London Symphony Orchestra++
Malcolm Sargent++
[Beethoven] ‘I do not think we are likely to get a better recording for a long while’ Gramophone
[Bruch] ‘Ricci gives very good performances indeed of both concertos; caught out nowhere, even on the margin of intonation, by their technical demands in the outer movements, he manages also to communicate both poetry and impulse to the slow movements’ Gramophone