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Maxim Vengerov
Complete Recordings 1991-2007
Maxim Vengerov
Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim,
Mstislav Rostropovich, Antonio Pappano
Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta
The supreme violinist of his generation – declared a talent “born once in
a hundred years” by his first teacher – Maxim Vengerov both embodies and renews
the great Russian tradition in the mastery of his instrument. This comprehensive
collection – with Rostropovich, Abbado, Barenboim and Pappano among his partners
– documents Vengerov’s achievements over the first decade-and-a-half of his
international career. As the New York Times wrote of his Sibelius: “Not even
Heifetz ... achieved the fevered pitch that stamps Mr. Vengerov's performance
from end to end.”
Released to mark the 40th birthday in August 2014 of Maxim Vengerov, widely
considered the supreme violinist of his generation, this box set of 19 CDs and
one DVD presents the entire catalogue of recordings he made for both Teldec
and EMI Classics between 1991 and 2007.
The box also celebrates the fact that Vengerov is once again playing regularly
at the world’s concert halls following his extended break between 2007 and 2011.
His pre-eminence as a violinist was confirmed in early 2014, when his five-concert
‘Artist Spotlight’ series at London’s Barbican Centre received this kind of
response from the media: “Among fiddlers Maxim Vengerov ... once again reigns
supreme.” (The Independent), and “The recital given on Friday by Vengerov…was
the stuff of legends,” (The Times).
Born in Russia in 1974, Maxim Vengerov began his career as a solo violinist
at the age of five. His first teacher, Galina Tourchaninova, said: “A child
such as Maxim is born only once in a hundred years.” He subsequently studied
with Zakhar Bron, one of today’s most distinguished teachers. Having triumphed
in the Wieniawski Competition at the age of 10, he won the Carl Flesch International
Violin Competition at the age of 15 in 1990, the year before he made his first
recording for Teldec.
Vengerov belongs in the great tradition of the Russian violin school, exemplified
since the 19th century by such players as Auer, Zimbalist, Elman, Heifetz, Milstein,
Oistrakh and Kogan. Record reviewers have often compared him to the legends
of the past: “There has been no finer account [of Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto
No 2] since that of the dedicatee, David Oistrakh ... Vengerov is in a class
of his own," (Gramophone); "Maxim Vengerov has a strong technique
coupled with a singing tone and an ability to connect with the emotional underpinnings
of a score that evokes the legendary virtuosos Jascha Heifetz and David Oistrakh,"
(Wall Street Journal), and “Mr. Vengerov, in a potent collaboration with Daniel
Barenboim and the Chicago Symphony, forges an interpretation of the Sibelius
that is more sublime than beautiful ... Not even Heifetz, in all his glistening
intensity, achieved the fevered pitch that stamps Mr. Vengerov's performance
from end to end,” (New York Times).
This box comprises 19 CDs of concertos, other works for solo violin and orchestra,
and chamber music, plus a DVD of a documentary made in 2005 by British director
Ken Howard: Maxim Vengerov: Living the Dream. Alongside such ‘essential’ works
of the violin repertoire as the concertos of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruch, Mendelssohn,
Mozart, Sibelius and Tchaikovsky, and Beethoven’s ‘Spring’ Sonata, it contains
a wealth of other works: major concertos from the 19th and 20th centuries, including
those of Paganini (No 1), Dvořák, Glazunov, Nielsen, Prokofiev, Shostakovich,
Stravinsky, Britten, Walton (the Viola Concerto rather than the Violin Concerto)
and Shchedrin; sonatas by Brahms, Elgar, Ysaÿe, Mozart and Mendelssohn, and
showpieces and bonbons by a wide range of composers, such as Wieniawski , Kreisler,
Sarasate, Lalo, Saint-Saëns, Massenet, Ravel, Messiaen and Waxman .
The conductors with whom Vengerov collaborates in these recordings include
Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Antonio Pappano and his mentor Mstislav Rostropovich.
“Slava was like a musical father,” he told Violinist.com in 2013. “It was much
more that I learned from him than just music, and musical expression. The thing
that struck me was his humanity.”
Vengerov won Gramophone’s 1995 Record of the Year Award for his interpretation
of Prokofiev’s Concerto No 1 and Shostakovich’s Concerto No 1 with the London
Symphony Orchestra and Rostropovich; "If this isn't great violin playing
then I don't know what it is. ... A triumph for all concerned," was the
Gramophone reviewer’s judgement.
Having been Gramophone’s Artist of the Year in 2002, he went on to win a Grammy
Award in 2003 for his recording of Britten and Walton concertos, also with the
LSO and Rostropovich.
All the CDs in the box are presented in wallets carrying the original CD artwork.
The earliest of these recordings is a disc of sonatas (Mozart, Beethoven Mendelssohn)
and the most recent is a programme of Mozart concertos in which Vengerov also
directs the UBS Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra.
The contents of this box can be summed up with Gramophone’s view on the 1993
recital disc ‘Virtuoso Vengerov’: "He is such a masterful musician that
everything he touches turns to gold."
Warner Classics 19CDs plus 1DVD 2564631514
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