Violinist Virgil Boutellis-Taft offers a violin-and-orchestra recital of the old school, with an extramusical theme and not a concerto in sight. The idea of an Incantation is general: Boutellis-Taft and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Jac van Steen play pieces where no representation of an incantation is involved, but the violin takes on a kind of magical mood. The proceedings get off to a shaky start with Max Bruch's Kol Nidre, Op. 47, originally for cello and orchestra but less successful in a violin arrangement. ...
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Violinist Virgil Boutellis-Taft offers a violin-and-orchestra recital of the old school, with an extramusical theme and not a concerto in sight. The idea of an Incantation is general: Boutellis-Taft and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Jac van Steen play pieces where no representation of an incantation is involved, but the violin takes on a kind of magical mood. The proceedings get off to a shaky start with Max Bruch's Kol Nidre, Op. 47, originally for cello and orchestra but less successful in a violin arrangement. The Chaconne in G minor of Tomaso Antonio Vitali is a Baroque virtuoso piece with an only lightly incantatory quality. However, things get in gear with a fiery Saint-Saëns Danse Macabre, Op. 40, and in Ernest Bloch's Baal Shem, Boutellis-Taft imparts a vocal quality to the violin. The highlight is Chausson's Poème, Op. 25, a work for which there is no shortage of recordings, but that has rarely maintained the kind of intense low boil that it has here. Boutellis-Taft and van Steen...
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