Violin Concerto In D Minor, Op.47
Serenade No.1 In D, Op.69a
Serenade No.2 In G Minor, Op.69b
Humoreske No.5 In E Flat, Op.89 No.3
Ida Haendel, violin
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
dir : Paavo Berglund
ASD 3199 LP (stereo/quadraphonic), [P] 1976
"Lossless" LP rip: 96 kHz, 24 bit (see details below)
Although this performance has been transferred to CD,
none of the CDs are currently in print
FLAC files, scans
Haendel (1928 - ) is probably the last of a magnificent generation of violinists. Her performance of the Sibelius Concerto elicited a fan letter from its composer: “I congratulate you on the great success, but most of all I congratulate myself, that my concerto has found an interpreter of your rare standard.”
Haendel studied with teachers as important and diverse as Carl Flesch and Georges Enescu; and her playing of the concerto combines Enescu’s freedom with Flesch’s discipline, Enescu’s exotic passion with Flesch’s academic seriousness. The concerto, especially in its revised form, shuttles, in performances like Heifetz’s (especially the early one with Beecham), between menace and outright terror. Haendel’s reading seems at first to achieve both effects to an incomparable degree, but after a few passages it becomes clear that intimidation’s not only her modus operandi but her almost sole focus—she plays with incredible strength and determination, often grinding out passages at tempos that seem almost willfully deliberate (as in the figuration near the climax of the second movement) and maintaining an almost pugilistic attitude in passages that could provide a conciliatory contrast. There’s no gainsaying her imposing command of the technical and musical requirements, nor the thrilling effect her slashing style can achieve in a steely work like this one, nor even the experience of hearing the work from a violinist who’s certainly one of the last of the strong-minded soloists who bestrode the last century’s stages like colosses. So, while later, more highly nuanced performances, like Vengerov’s with Barenboim, may open more of the work’s facets to contemplation, there’s still, in Haendel’s playing, the thrill of hearing the steam engine roar by, simple and relatively uncomplicated though that experience might be...
Ida Haendel’s playing commands attention in an old-fashioned way that many younger players seem to have eschewed. However one might second-guess the choices she makes in individual passages, they emanate from a personality determined enough to vie with that of the composer for attention. Some violinists may cherish the hope that an evening of their Sibelius will prompt listeners to respond directly to Sibelius. In Haendel’s case, there’s no getting around her: it’s not just the composer’s, but Haendel’s Sibelius, too. For some that may seem an obstacle to full satisfaction. But if I could hear Homer reciting the Iliad, I’d be as riveted by hearing Homer’s voice as by the great epic itself. Homer, Haendel—both strongly recommended.
Robert Maxham, FANFARE
The audio chain I use to rip LPs: (1) the LPs are cleaned using a VPI H!-16 record cleaning machine, using TTVJ Vinyl-Zyme Gold cleaning fluid, (2) ripped on a Nakamichi Dragon CT self-centering turntable with integral tonearm and Ortofon cartridge, (3) processed by a Korg DS-DAC-10R (RIAA setting), (4) then recorded and edited using AudioGate 4, Adobe Audition (and rarely iZotope RX) software.