Gidon Kremer on DG: Nineteenth Century

As previously planned, my second account of the Deutsche Grammophon (DG) 22-CD box set of concerto recordings featuring violinist Gidon Kremer will focus on the nineteenth-century repertoire. This category accounts for the fewest number of selections. The composers are the “usual suspects” associated with this repertoire:

• Johannes Brahms: the Opus 77 concerto in D major along with the Opus 102 double concerto with cellist Mischa Maisky as the second soloist
• Felix Mendelssohn: the early (1822) concerto in D minor and the 1823 double concerto with pianist Martha Argerich (but not the warhorse Opus 64 concerto in E minor)
• Niccolò Paganini: the fourth concerto in D minor with cadenzas by Kremer
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: the Opus 35 concerto in D minor

Italian musicologist Pietro Spada, responsible for one of the less familiar compositions in Gidon Kremer’s repertoire (photographer unknown, from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

The “non-concerto” selections are more interesting than the previously discussed Schubert offerings for a variety of reasons:

• The Paganini CD includes the “Sonata Varsavia,” which was composed around the same time as the fourth concerto. This is a set of variations on a mazurka composed by Józef Eisner, also scored for violin and orchestra. However, the orchestral parts were lost, meaning that only the solo music for the violin survived. Kremer’s recording presents an orchestra arrangement by the Italian musicologist Pietro Spada, and Kremer supplies his own cadenza for the sonata’s third movement.
• The Tchaikovsky concerto is coupled with the Opus 26 “Sérénade mélancolique” in B-flat major, also scored for violin and orchestra.
• Somewhat in the spirit of Tchaikovsky’s Opus 26 is the Opus 25 “Poème” by Ernest Chausson, which I have come to appreciate for how well it fits the scenario of Antony Tudor’s ballet “Jardin aux lilas” (lilac garden).
• A less familiar duo is the Opus 35 “Fantasia appassionata” composed by Henri Vieuxtemps; but none of his seven violin concertos, two of which (Opus 31 in D minor and Opus 37 in A minor) were recorded by Jascha Heifetz, are included in the Kremer collection.
• Least expected is an arrangement of the so-called “Dante” sonata. This was composed for solo piano and included in the second volume of Franz Liszt’s Années de pèlerinage (years of Pilgrimage), the “Italian” year. This composition was arranged by violin and string orchestra by Sergei Dreznin. As might be guessed, Kremer performs this with his own Kremerata Baltica ensemble.

What I found particularly interesting was that the Mendelssohn selections were accompanied by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. There is a prankish side of me that would like to believe that Kremer’s experience with this ensemble, which performs without a conductor, may have planted a seed for him that would later grow into his own Kremerata Baltica. The other selections basically involve a “usual suspects” list of DG conductors: Leonard Bernstein (Brahms), Riccardo Muti (Paganini), Lorin Maazel (Tchaikovsky), and Riccardo Chailly (Chausson and Vieuxtemps).

That said, my personal preferences are based on how Kremer departs from the “beaten path;” and those departures will probably guide the choices I make in subsequent listening experiences from this collection.