Charles Auguste de Bériot - Violin Concertos Nos. 4. 6 & 7 (Ayana Tsuji)

Information

Composer: Charles Auguste de Bériot

• (01) Violin Concerto No. 4 in D minor, Op. 46
• (02) Violin Concerto No. 6 in A major, Op. 70
• (04) Violin Concerto No. 7 in G major, Op. 76
• (06) Air varié No. 4 in B flat major, Op. 5 'Montagnard'
• (07) Scène de ballet, Op. 100

Ayana Tsuji, violin
Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubice
Michael Halász, conductor

Date: 2017
Label: Naxos
https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.573734

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Review

It’s extraordinary how potent cheap music is. So goes that delicious quote of Noël Coward’s, and perhaps rather naughtily it’s these words that pop into my head when listening to these mid-19th-century violin concertos by the Belgian violin virtuoso Charles Bériot.

This may have been the era of Mendelssohn but it was also the era of virtuoso showmanship, exemplified by the 1837 keyboard duel in Paris between Liszt and Thalberg, and it’s in this context that I can’t help but hear Bériot’s violin concertos. First there’s their abundance of double-stops, ricochet bowing, harmonics and the rest. Then there’s their tuneful, frothily passionate melodies, which recall the Italian operatic world inhabited by Bériot’s lover, later wife, the Spanish operatic diva Maria Malibran (although in an interesting circle back to Mendelssohn, the German composer actually wrote an aria accompanied by a violin solo for the couple).

As it happens, I suspect this would still have proved to be an entertaining romp had the recording itself been perfectly executed, but frustratingly this latest release in Naxos’s Bériot concertos series displays a distinct lack of polish. To a slightly thick background acoustic, add an often slightly rough-edged sound from the Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra under Michael Halász, along with the odd intonation glitch. Then, while violinist Ayana Tsuji has caught the operatic diva mood of these pieces and made neat work of their technical fireworks, her playing sometimes bears the intonational hallmarks of a less than luxurious recording situation. Her violin often also has a slightly shrill quality, which this repertoire only accentuates.

While this disc certainly provides an interesting snapshot of a musical era, given its flaws I’m not sure I’d want to collect the whole set.

-- Charlotte Gardner, Gramophone

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Charles Auguste de Bériot (20 February 1802 – 8 June 1870) was a Belgian violinist and composer. He studied violin with Jean-François Tiby in Paris, and briefly worked with Pierre Baillot. He was also influenced by Paganini. De Bériot composed a great amount of violin music including ten concertos. Although these are now rarely heard, his pedagogical compositions are still of use for violin students. He was chief violin instructor at the Brussels Conservatory where he established the Franco-Belgian school of violin playing. Among his students were Hubert Léonard, Henri Vieuxtemps and Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Auguste_de_B%C3%A9riot

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Ayana Tsuji (born 1997 in Gifu) is one of the most promising young violinists of Japan. She was awarded First Prize at the 2016 Montreal International Competition, together with five other prizes. Tsuji has performed as soloist with orchestras such as the Montreal, NHK, Tokyo Metropolitan, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and Sinfonia Varsovia. She is also active as recitalist and chamber musician. Tsuji is currently enrolled at the Tokyo College of Music. Her debut CD was for Warner Classics. Tsuji plays a Joannes Baptista Guadagnini 1748, on loan from the Yellow Angel NPO Corporation.
https://www.ayanatsuji.com/

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