The Romantic Violin Concerto - 11
MAX REGER (1873-1916): Violin Concerto in A, Op. 101, 2 Romances for Violin and Small Orchestra, Op. 50.Catalogue Number: 01N048
Label: Hyperion
Reference: CDA 67892
Format: CD
Price: $18.98
Description: This is one of the most-maligned concertos of the late Romantic period and, right now, there is only one other version of it on CD, a 30-year-old East German recording on Berlin Classics. Yet the orchestration is not thick, overly contrupuntal, dense or turgid, the music is full of warmth, the violin playing almost every minute, wending a now nostalgic, now more exciting path through the 28-minute first movement, a meditative, expressive 15-minute slow movement and a lively, rhythmically active, sparkling finale of 14 minutes. Long? Yes, but never over-long. The Romances come from eight years earlier in 1900 and were written especially for bourgeois audiences and urban concert halls. Tanja Becker-Bender (violin), Konzerthausorchester Berlin; Lothar Zagrosek.