It takes a good deal of confidence to record these two most familiar of all the Romantic violin concertos, especially if you have recorded them both before, as violinist Christian Tetzlaff has. Confidence is what Tetzlaff is all about here, and it gives him the wherewithal to create a genuinely original reading of the Beethoven Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61. His tempos are fast, but others have taken the concerto fast. He de-romanticizes Beethoven's big melodies: although there's no hint of historical performance here, ...
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It takes a good deal of confidence to record these two most familiar of all the Romantic violin concertos, especially if you have recorded them both before, as violinist Christian Tetzlaff has. Confidence is what Tetzlaff is all about here, and it gives him the wherewithal to create a genuinely original reading of the Beethoven Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61. His tempos are fast, but others have taken the concerto fast. He de-romanticizes Beethoven's big melodies: although there's no hint of historical performance here, the sparing use of vibrato is common enough these days, partly as a result of that influence. If you imagine a 20th century Beethoven violin concerto performance from the Eastern European-Israeli sphere, say that of Itzhak Perlman, you will find Tetzlaff at the opposite extreme. So far, so good, and you can take your pick among recordings according to whether you favor these tendencies. Where Tetzlaff demands attention is in his overall structuring of the concerto, which seems to...
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