Columbia EMI Testament - SSAX 1744 - 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl

AAA 100% Analogue - Mastered at Abbey Road 

Limited Edition - Pressed in Germany - Columbia (EMI) 33CX 1744 

Testament has revived these classic titles from the EMI catalog using only the original EMI master tapes,cut onto lacquer at EMI's Abbey Road Studios and mastered using full analog techniques throughout production.

Leonid Kogan (stereo LP)
SSAX1744
MENDELSSOHN
Violin Concerto in E minor, Op.64
MOZART
Violin Concertos No.3 in G, K.216

Leonid Kogan
Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire
Constantin Silvestri

Violinist Leonid Kogan performs Violin Concerts by Mozart and Mendelssohn alongside the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra conducted by Constantin Silvestri.

 

"Mozart's violin concertos are to a large extent a reflection of the taste of the aristocratic society of his age. They are music which makes its foremost appeal by the elegance and supreme fluency of the writing and addresses itself to a cultivated sensibility but touches only very rarely - in contrast to his mature piano concertos - the deeper strings of emotion." - from liner notes

 

"Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto justly reckons among the prized possessions of every violinist's repertoire. Together with the violin concertos of Beethoven and Brahms, it forms the great triad among nineteenth century works for solo violin and orchestra. True, it does not aspire to the classical grandeur of the Beethoven concerto nor does it show the symphonic elaboration of Brahms' but it possesses a most alluring charm and lyrical grace of its own. Through its first two movements there runs a vein of gentle melancholy as characteristic of Mendelssohn's genius - Wagner read into this an expression of his Jewishness - as is the elfin lightness and glitter of the Finale. Besides, every bar of the solo part proclaims the truly violinistic nature of its conception." - from liner notes

 

Mozart wrote 27 piano concertos but only six for the violin. This discrepancy in numbers is to be explained by the fact that his favorite instrument was the piano on which he was indeed one of the great virtuosos of his time while the solo violin held only a limited and temporary attraction for him. The first five violin concertos were composed in Salzburg in 1775 when Mozart was a boy of 19, and the sixth followed two years later after which his interest in the genre ceased. The precise occasions for which he wrote them is unknown - possibly for his own use, but, more probably, for Gaetano Brunetti who was the leader of the Salzburg court orchestra.

 

Musicians:

Leonid Kogan, violin

Paris Conservatoire Orchestra

Constantin Silvestri, conductor

 

Selections:

Side One: 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Violin Concerto No. 3 in G, K.216

1. First Movement: Allegro - Cadenza - Tempo I

2. Second Movement: Adagio - Cadenza - Tempo I

3. Third Movement: Rondo (Allegro-Andante-Allegretto-Tempo I)

 

Side Two: 

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847)

Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64

1. First Movement: Allegro molto appassionato - Cadenza - Tempo I - Presto

2. Second Movement: Andante

3. Third Movement: Allegretto non troppo - Allegro molto vivace