Berlin Philharmonic Archives
I am a real fan of the Berlin Philharmonic (BPO) Digital Concert Hall! There are still 3 days before the BPO season opens, so I clicked on the “archives” tab at their site, and selected a program that I felt I would enjoy.
The price for a single concert is around $13. You can also get tickets for a month, or a year…
Anyhow: the concert I selected included the performance of the wonderful violin concerto by Erich Wolfgang Korngold.
After emigrating to the US, Korngold composed a lot music for films. But he did write a lot of music for the concert hall.
I loved the music that I heard. The performance was excellent, and the orchestra was led by the conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel. The soloist was Leonidas Kavakos.
The music was very romantic, lyrical, and beautifully performed. Dudamel was totally in charge, and assured that the orchestra was never at a level to overshadow the violin solo. I especially loved the second movement, titled Romance-Andante.
If you’d like to purchase a CD, try the Mutter recording, or Gil Shaham’s, or James Ehnes. I could not locate a Kavakos recording of the Korngold.
Here is the Korngold Violin Concerto with Leonidas Kavakos • Dudamel • Berliner Philharmoniker:
And here is the same concerto with a different orchestra:
Korngold Violin Concerto – Kavakos – Santa Cecilia orchestra – Eschenbach
Tags: Korngold, violin concerto, Leonids Kavakos, Gustavo Dudamel, Berlin Philharmonic