Prokofiev:
- The 2 Violin Concertos
Arabella Steinbacher, a former student of Anne-Sophie Mutter’s, has established a high-profile musical career. An additional strong attraction for me on this CD is Vasily Petrenko, the excellent Russian conductor who has achieved strong success ever since his appointment with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic in 2007. Petrenko has focused his CD career on Rachmaninov and Shostakovich; I was fascinated to see what he would do with Prokofiev’s violin music.
On this recording we hear the following:
Prokofiev:
- Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 19
Russian National Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko
- Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 63
Russian National Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko
- Sonata in D major for solo violin, Op. 115
The soloist is Arabella Steinbacher (violin)
The first movement of concerto #1 is taken quite slowly, and Petrenko shows us the great detail in Prokofiev’s orchestration. Steinbacher’s interpretation is detailed and musical, which
allows us to hear the beauty of this piece.
In the concerto #2, Petrenko creates a mysterious first movement. The second movement is also delicate music for the orchestra as the soloist sings by herself, and one marvels at how beautifully balanced it is in Petrenko’s hands. The double stops that open the finale can be real challenge, but Steinbacher plays them flawlessly.
Here is Arabella Steinbacher – Beethoven Violin Concerto
http://youtu.be/uUZF8NcLLEg
And now, here is S.Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto № 1, in D – Major, op. 19, with Arabella Steinbacher, violin soloist
Finally, here’s Arabella Steibacher at the Musikverein Vienna, playing the Tchaikovsky violin concerto
Tags: Arabella Steibacher, Prokofiev, Concerto, Sonata for solo violin
You make it sound as if this is Petrenko’s not Steinbacher’s Prokofiev. Since I heard her give a very VERY similar performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Yannick Nezet-Sequin this past summer at SPAC, I realize the silliness of that position. This recording is definitely the result of the soloists creative imagination. Her Orfeo recording of the Beethoven, curiously has similar characteristics of relaxed tempo and extraordinary attention to nuance – although the concert performance you posted is very much more intense, as was the performance with the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood in 2010.
I wonder what gave you the idea that Steinbacher was a pupil of Anne Sophie Mutter? Although she has been supported by Mutter’s foundation and honored by Ms. Mutter’s present of a Benoit Rolland bow, Steinbacher was a pupil of Ana Chumachenco at the Musikhochschule in Munich. She was admitted to that conservatory to study under Chumacheko at the age of nine – the youngest ever admitted. However Julia Fischer was also admitted as a nine yr old to study under Chumachenko about a year and a half later. The two became good friends as you might imagine, being the only two children among these college age students.
Her other most significant mentor, according to her website, http://www.arabella-steinbacher.com/ was / is her dear friend, Ivry Gitlis.