Program: BEETHOVEN: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61; VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Symphony No. 8 in D Minor
Performers: Nathan Milstein, violin/ London Philharmonic Orchestra/ Sir Adrian Boult
Studio: EMI Classics DVD DVB 388445690
Video: 4:3 full screen color
Audio: PCM Mono
All regions
Length: 69:05
Rating: ****
Nathan Milstein (1903-1992) appears in concert in the Beethoven Concerto from Royal Festival Hall, London, 6 February 1972 in his hard-driving persona, with which Sir Adrian Boult (1889-1983) and his long baton remain firmly attached. The performance lays out the musical materials in broad arches, firmly classical and architectural at every tutti, while Milstein weaves his subtle, idiosyncratic tapestry through Beethoven’s half-steps and harmonic variants on the main theme. The camera, too, seems to retain its objectivity, only confronting Milstein from over his right shoulder; most of the time we are poised above and behind the tiers to the right of Boult.
What impresses most is the singular, unforced aim of Milstein to the musical point; even in dialogues with woodwinds, he remains unyielding, expecting them to be harmonically there on cue. Yet the first movement has a buoyed lyricism and expansive breadth; it is neither hurried nor smeared in any of the figures. Poignant intimacy for the G Major theme and variations movement, Milstein playing ppp. A brief cadenza into the Rondo, opening with a rapier thrust from Milstein and then into the quick shifts of registration for the Rondo’s repetitions. A flick of Boult’s baton and flutes, oboes, strings, and bassoon join Milstein for the sprightly dance. A fierce cadenza in Bach’s spirit, then the brisk, tripping gavotte to judgment after the extended trill. Oboe and Milstein, French horn and Milstein, then tutti and Milstein to a blazing finale, well-received by a privileged, grateful audience.
The concerto of 18 October 1972 from Royal Festival Hall, London has Sir Adrian Boult leading the Vaughan Williams Eighth, a work originally debuted by Sir John Barbirolli. The eerie opening movement, marked Fantasia–Variazioni senza tema–bristles with Debussy’s modal colors and misty washes of sound through nine major tempo changes. The camera dotes on individual players‚ parts, the violas, the clarinet, the flute, the harp, the oboe, the cello and brass choirs. The jazzy figures in the Scherzo alla marcia carry some ironies out of Hindemith and Kurt Weill. Cavatina exploits Vaughan Williams’ capacity for songful utterance in the form of a serenade for strings, and the first minute of camerawork poises high over Boult’s left shoulder at his first violins and cellos. The solo violin part pays fleeting homage to the composer’s own Lark Ascending. The last movement, Toccata, permits Boult’s brass and battery to strut their virtuosic abilities. A sense of jubilation invests the closing pages, the finale of which raises the audience to unbuttoned appreciation of their veteran conductor.
— Gary Lemco
