Gidon Kremer on Warner: Nineteenth Century

Cover of the collection being discussed (from the Amazon.com Web page)

Readers may recall that I spent some of my time at the end of October and the beginning of November anticipating the Warner Classics release of Gidon Kremer: The Warner Collection by working my way through the earlier Deutsche Grammophon (DG) 22-CD box of concerto recordings that were anthologized to celebrate Kremer’s 70th birthday (on February 27, 2017). Originally scheduled for release on November 12, the Warner collection of 21 CDs was delayed until after Thanksgiving, becoming available this past November 26. To be more accurate about the title, none of these recordings were made originally for Warner. They were made for Teldec, EMI Classics, and Erato, all of which are now Warner “properties.”

When I wrote about the DG anthology, I partitioned the repertoire historically into compositions from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth century. The Warner anthology does not include any eighteenth-century music. The nineteenth century selections are decidedly fewer than those of the twentieth. Thus, I shall begin with the nineteenth century, taking more time to assess the full scope of Kremer’s twentieth-century repertoire.

For the most part these are all concerto recordings. Once again, the concerto by Ludwig van Beethoven (Opus 61 in D major) is the most impressive offering. Readers may recall that Kremer’s recording with Neville Mariner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields was one of the high points of the DG collection. This was because Kremer used it as a platform to perform cadenzas composed by Alfred Schnittke. The Warner recording was made with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt. This time Kremer uses Beethoven’s own cadenza as a point of departure; but, inspired by Schnittke, he adds his own set of provocative twists, including adding a piano part, played by Vadim Sakharov, to the cadenza passages. The resulting cadenzas are thus as eyebrow-raising as those Schnittke had concocted.

Beyond that, this modest collection is even more modest because two of the concertos are given two different recordings. The concerto by Johannes Brahms (Opus 77 in D major) was recorded with both Herbert von Karajan (with the Berlin Philharmonic) and Harnoncourt (with the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam). More surprising is that there are two accounts of the concerto by Robert Schumann (WoO 23 in D minor). This time Harnoncourt is again conducting the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and the other conductor is Riccardo Muti leading the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Schumann also figures in the modest chamber music offerings. Kremer is accompanied by pianist Martha Argerich in a performance of the Opus 121 (second) sonata in D minor. Then there is a duo album with pianist Andrei Gavrilov, which features Carl Maria von Weber’s Opus 48, which he entitled “Grand duo concertant;” and the CD concludes with a short set of variations by Gioachino Rossini.