Ormandy’s Archive

TCHAIKOVSKY: Violin Concerto; Symphony No. 5 – Ruggiero Ricci, v./ New Sym. Orch./ BBC Sym. Orch. (Op. 64)/ Sir Malcolm Sargent – Guild

by Audiophile Audition | Feb 20, 2016 | Classical Reissue Reviews

Vintage Sir Malcolm Sargent renditions of two Tchaikovsky staples, which according to your taste may prove exceptional. TCHAIKOVSKY: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35; Symphony No. 5 in e minor, Op. 64 – Ruggiero Ricci, v./ New Sym. Orch./ BBC Sym. Orch. (Op. 64)/ Sir Malcolm Sargent – Guild GHCD 2425, 78:56 [Distr. By Albany] ****:   Sir Malcolm Sargent (1895-1967) had long proved a strong advocate for the music of Tchaikovsky, so in 1950 Decca arranged for him and Ruggiero Ricci (1918-2012) to record what would become the first LP version of the Violin Concerto to be issued in Europe. Given the burnished tone of Ricci’s 1734 Guarneri del Gesu instrument, the Concerto certainly has its moments of sweet bravura. While the scale of Sargent’s performance seems less grand than say, Ormandy’s, and less ferociously intense than that of Mitropoulos, the streamlined affection – among the faster of first movement renditions – remains palpable. Ricci treats the first movement cadenza strictly like an extended Paganini caprice, rife with slides, spiccati, and brilliant changes of register with double stops. I remain skeptical about the cuts that he and Sargent take for the first movement and the third, while I […]