Anton Rubinstein; César Cui - Violin Concerto; Suite Concertante (Takako Nishizaki)

Information

Composer: Anton Rubinstein; César Cui

1. Rubinstein - Violin Concerto in G major, Op. 46: I. Moderato assai
2. Rubinstein - Violin Concerto in G major, Op. 46: II. Andante
3. Rubinstein - Violin Concerto in G major, Op. 46: III. Moderato assai
4. Cui - Suite Concertante, Op. 25: I. Intermezzo scherzando
5. Cui - Suite Concertante, Op. 25: II. Canzonetta
6. Cui - Suite Concertante, Op. 25: III. Cavatina
7. Cui - Suite Concertante, Op. 25: IV. Finale. Tarantella

Takako Nishizaki, violin
Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. Michael Halász (1-3)
Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. Kenneth Schermerhorn (4-7)
Date: 1984 (4-7), 1985 (1-3)
Label: Naxos
http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.555244

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Review

ARTICSTIC QUALITY: 8 / SOUND QUALITY: 7

Once again these characterful but still woefully under-represented works impress in a program that, back in the mid-1980s (when both performances first appeared) seemed to denote a key strand of the Naxos agenda–to provide rare or previously un-recorded repertoire at bargain price. Works for violin and orchestra by Rubinstein and Cui, played by Takako Nishizaki, feature on this reissue, and they sound as fresh and vital as they did back then. The G major Anton Rubinstein violin concerto is a fine and powerful work, quite as good as many a lesser-known Russian example in the same genre, and easily as deserving of wider currency as, say, the Taneyev Suite de Concert, which is just as rarely heard these days. Nishizaki gives a committed and polished reading, though you often feel that this is music written by a pianist who had marginally less facility when writing for the violin. Still, here’s a well-schooled performance, full of agreeable touches of imagination (the Andante shows Nishizaki’s fine-spun tone to particularly good effect) delivered with crisply economical urgency that makes good musical sense even of the work’s plainer and less idiomatic passages.

Another rarity is César Cui’s charming if rather derivative Suite Concertante, again very nicely played and decently recorded, too, though Nishizaki received rather better sound engineering in Hong Kong’s Tsuen Wan Town Hall in 1984 than she did a year later in Bratislava for the Rubinstein. The Suite Concertante performance originally came from a useful compilation of Cui’s works directed by Kenneth Schermerhorn on Marco Polo. A warm welcome back to the catalog for both works [5/20/2001]

-- ClassicsToday

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2001/July01/Rubinsteinvc.htm
http://www.amazon.com/Rubinstein-Violin-Concerto-major-Op/dp/B00005A7K9

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Anton Grigorevich Rubinstein (November 28 [O.S.November 16] 1829 – November 20 [O.S. November 8] 1894) was a Russian pianist, composer and conductor who became a pivotal figure in Russian culture when he founded the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. He was the elder brother of Nikolai Rubinstein who founded the Moscow Conservatory. As a pianist, Rubinstein ranks amongst the great 19th-century keyboard virtuosos. Rubinstein was also a prolific composer throughout much of his life.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Rubinstein

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César Cui (18 January [O.S. 6 January] 1835 – 13 March 1918) was a Russian composer and music critic of French and Lithuanian descent. He was a member of group "The Five", although Cui's works are not so nationalistic as those of the other members. As a writer on music, Cui contributed almost 800 articles between 1864 and 1918 to various newspapers and other publications in Russia and Europe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A9sar_Cui

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Takako Nishizaki (born 14 April 1944) is a Japanese violinist. She was the first student to complete the Suzuki Method course, at age nine. Nishizaki came to the United States from Japan in 1962. She first studied with Broadus Erle at Yale University, and later with Joseph Fuchs at Juilliard. Some of Nishizaki's recordings with Slovak Philharmonic under Kenneth Jean by Naxos Records of famous violin concertos are highly ranked by The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takako_Nishizaki

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/takako-nishizaki-mn0000031623/biography

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