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                                           ELGAR VIOLIN CONCERTO

              Frank Peter Zimmerman, London Philharmonic Orchestra/ Edward Gardner (BIS)

Elgar’s Violin Concerto has been recorded over 40 times (I have more versions than I can remember), and I can’t recall a duff offering. In just the past two years we have had fine accounts from Vilde Frang, drawing us inward, and Christian Tetzlaff, more extrovert, and both examples of how this wonderful work can inspire international soloists, not just British ones.

Now we have a new release from Frank Peter Zimmerman, like Tetzlaff a German violinist, and one who has this concerto under his fingers after many performances worldwide. In an interview published in the Strad magazine, he tells of his love of the work and his pleasure at setting it down with Edward Gardner and his London Philharmonic Orchestra. The pleasure emanates from my loudspeakers, too, and it was a bonus that my first hearing of this treasurable recording came on Elgar’s birthday.

Gardner’s LPO give us a taut, urgent opening, even the gentler, lyrical passages (Alice Stuart-Wortley’s “Windflower” theme) still within the pulse, only gradually relaxing before picking up again. Zimmerman’s violin emerges almost imperceptibly, continuing with well-defined articulation but also generous phrasing, unafraid to indulge in totally appropriate portamenti. Some would describe this interpretation as driven, needing to yield a little, but the overall impression is one of wholehearted affection for this glorious music.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is resplendent, responsive and attentive under Gardner’s alert ear, and this is truly a heartwarming example of symphonic interlocution (homage to the great Leonard Sachs of “The Good Old Days”, a dead ringer for Elgar) between soloist and orchestra.

The performers’ grip on the structure of this movement made me more aware than usual that there is no cadenza rounding off the movement’s proceedings: all the weight is going to be thrown onto the finale.

There is a wonderful sense of flowing limpidity in the slow movement, its interludes hushed, and Zimmerman’s almost vocal lines imparting a stillness which is the calm before the outburst of the finale.

And that movement begins with a flurrying whirl of expectation, busy Zimmerman skeltering along while Gardner sculpts moments of orchestral grandeur. As the reminiscences accumulate one can understand Zimmerman’s feeling that in this movement we have a mysticism evoking King Arthur and Merlin, until at last we reach the otherworldly, far-reaching cadenza which here emerges as the point of the whole interpretation.

Ghostly orchestral thrumming underpins Zimmerman’s heartbreaking reflections upon what has passed, multiple-stopping just part of the discreet virtuosity he brings to this soul-baring (remember the dedication “Here is enshrined the soul of *****”). Elgar’s peremptory rounding-off seems hollow after what Zimmerman has conveyed..

This is a swift performance, coming in at around 45 minutes. There is an amazing difference in timings between Sammons and Heifetz (42”) and Kennedy and Haendel (55”). Chatgpt has some interesting insights upon the timings of all recordings.

Now it’s your turn. This more than desirable recording is only available via streaming.  It desperately deserves to be available on hard-copy CD, which I am sure is the favourite medium of most of us. Do lobby BIS to bring this about.

Christopher Morley

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