Celebrated Dutch violinist Maria Milstein performs Prokofiev’s Violin Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 together with Otto Tausk and PHION, Orchestra of Gelderland & Overijssel.

Maria Milstein: “Prokofiev’s music contains boundless fantasy and richness. The first time I heard Oistrakh’s recording of the First Concerto it made an indelible impression on me. The two concertos are extremely different and represent separate stages in Prokofiev’s life. The poetic, heavenly mood of the First Concerto is an invitation to a land of dreams. The second concerto sets an earnest and somber tone from the opening melody.”

She won the prestigious Dutch Music Prize in 2018 and released the critically acclaimed album 'Ravel Voyageur' in 2019. She plays a violin by Michele Angelo Bergonzi and a bow by Nicolas Léonard & François Xavier Tourte, on loan from the Dutch Musical Instruments Foundation.

REVIEW:

Maria Milstein has enjoyed a quietly successful career largely out of the limelight and with this pairing of works she is making a decisive move away from the more esoteric chamber works that make up the bulk of her discography, a very fine Ravel disc recorded with her pianist sister Nathalia excepted.

There is an earthiness to her view of both works often missing from more cosmopolitan accounts and I think they are all the better for it...the end of the first movement of the D major concerto is as balletically poised as could be dreamt of but this ballet, Dutch orchestra notwithstanding, is being staged at the Bolshoi.

By balletic, I also mean a groundedness in the Prokofievian rhythms that still beat through these more lyrical scores. I should imagine every movement of these concertos as performed here could actually be danced with little adjustment by ballet dancers.

In the unjustly neglected second concerto, this connection brings to my mind the composer’s roughly contemporaneous Romeo and Juliet. Much recorded though it is, this concerto has never enjoyed the popular success of the first. Listen to the swooning second subject of the opening movement in Milstein’s hands and we are eavesdropping on a bashful Romeo making declarations to his Juliet – and features Prokofiev’s dazzling talent for orchestration at its best. Personally, I have always preferred rough hewn Russian recordings of his great ballet score to more perfumed Western outings. The same is true here. Too many recordings seek to round out the corners where Milstein and Tausk seem to delight in the tangy scents of the Steppes that waft through the writing.

This approach is certainly advanced by Milstein’s rich, ripe tone which is like a throwback to older Russian fiddlers such as Heifetz and Oistrakh. It is as solid as it is fulsome. Milstein really comes into her own in this regard in the glorious melody of the slow movement of second concerto. Forget all fussy critical appraisals – this is violin fanciers’ heaven.

The little known Phion Orchestra, formed in 2019 after a merger between the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra and the Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra, provide nimble and empathetic support and clearly enjoyed their week in the studio.

But of course the violin needs to be the center of attention and Milstein pulls off her moment in the sun with aplomb. She has everything she needs to be another star in the violin firmament- gorgeous tone, finely honed musicality and plenty of charisma – maybe this recording will be the one to take her out of the wings onto center stage?

-- MusicWeb International