Charles-Auguste De Beriot: Violin Concertos Nos 2, 3 & 5 / Quint, Trevor

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BÉRIOT Violin Concertos: No. 2; No. 3; No. 5 • Philippe Quint (vn); Kirk Trevor, cond; Slovak RSO • NAXOS 8.570360 (70:56) Violinists nowadays remember...


BÉRIOT Violin Concertos: No. 2; No. 3; No. 5 • Philippe Quint (vn); Kirk Trevor, cond; Slovak RSO • NAXOS 8.570360 (70:56)


Violinists nowadays remember Charles-Auguste de Bériot (1820–1870) as the composer of 60 concert studies that, on the way to Paganini’s caprices, season with brilliance and fluency the strength imparted by Jakob Dont’s Caprices, op. 35, and Pierre Gaviniés’s Matinées . His First, Seventh, and Ninth Concertos, in addition, held their ground in the teaching studio (as did his Scène de ballet ), and Maud Powell even recorded the Seventh with piano. If, in his own time, Bériot basked more luxuriously in the spotlight as the consort (later, the husband) of the celebrated diva Maria Malibran than as a violinist, his contribution to the history of violin-playing assures him a permanent place in the affections of violinists. As the founder of the Franco-Belgian School (his Méthode inculcates the norms of his elegant style through its numerous duets more effectively than it does through its loose pedagogical logic), he combined what he made sound like Paganini’s pyrotechnic virtuosity with the era’s prevailing Romanticism. Some professed to hear Malibran’s voice singing through his violin (and presumably in his compositions) long after she had died—the two may have shared a deeper musical bond than the period’s tabloids could have divined. As a teacher, Bériot also left, in Henri Vieuxtemps, a student whose works offered transcendental “ editions de luxe ” (Paul Stoeving’s description) of his teacher’s and Émile Sauret, whose staggering cadenza still steals technical thunder from Paganini’s First Concerto.


Takako Nishizaki recorded the First, “Military,” the Eighth, and the Ninth Concertos for marco polo (8.220440, 11:2, and now on Naxos 8.555104), so Quint’s recording brings the number to six available (with four still left to be brought forward). The Second Concerto in B Minor, op. 32, combines Paganinian brilliance with operatic suavity and, at times, an almost carnival-inspired gaiety like that in which listeners may also revel in Giovanni Bottesini’s works for double bass. The first movement’s thematic statements in octaves and flashing passagework should be familiar even to violinists who have played only his Duos concertantes . A step backwards from Ernst and Lipinski technically, it represents a stylistic step into the future, in fact into Vieuxtemps’s violinistic language and that of Wieniawski and of the many who would follow them. While Kirk Trevor captures the orchestral part’s near bombast, Philippe Quint, who seems to have been miked at a greater distance, sounds slender though heartfelt and less brilliant than simply bright while, perhaps appropriately, projecting less passion than mannered affect. The second movement’s cantilena provides a well-crafted showcase for his highly developed stylistic sensibilities. The finale, Rondo russe, reflects Viotti’s style of violin-playing as well as Bériot’s.


The Third Concerto in B Minor, op. 44, a substantial work like the Second, lasts more than 25 minutes. As in the better-known Seventh Concerto, the soloist comes out punching in two-fisted double-stops, a more aggressive opening than that of the Second Concerto, and the showy virtuosity continues throughout the movement, including a repeated passage in sliding double-stops similar to that in Franz von Vecsey’s Caprice No. 1, “The Wind.” The slow movement’s built around a declamatory middle section unusual for its rhetorical ardor. The finale, like Quint’s performance, suggests quicksilver, with a rapid-fire closing passage that hints at things to come in the finale of Vieuxtemps’s Fourth Concerto.


Though the Fifth Concerto—the program’s first in a major key (D)—lasts only half a minute longer than a quarter hour, it begins with a long, dramatic orchestral introduction. The soloist’s entry with ingratiating salon-like melodies exemplifies the sudden turns from the dramatic to the charming, from the virtuosic to the singing, that stud these pieces—and, in fact, Bériot’s works in general. The slow movement serves as little more than a slender bridge to the virtuosic finale, which opens portentously in the manner of a first movement, though it’s destined to expire after only about four minutes.


Despite the intervening years (Nishizaki recorded Concertos No. 1, 8, and 9 in 1986 and Quint recorded Nos. 2, 3, and 5 in 2006), the engineering seems to have a similar focus, placing the soloists in a natural balance with the orchestra. Quint’s tone seems a bit sweeter and a bit more slender, but he’s hardly less aggressive in the Bériot’s flashy passages.


Bériot’s music may smack too much of drawing-room refinement for the most serious general listeners, although admirers and detractors should agree that its passions never overstep the bounds of decorum and its darker clouds invariably give way to sunshine before dampening anyone’s spirits. For violinists and aficionados, however, these concertos, in Quint’s and Trevor’s sympathetic performances, will explain a great deal about the development of the art of violin-playing and the style of the virtuoso concerto throughout the coming century. Urgently recommended to those not hostile to the style or content.


FANFARE: Robert Maxham


Product Description:

  • Release Date: August 26, 2008


  • UPC: 747313036073


  • Catalog Number: 8570360


  • Label: Naxos


  • Number of Discs: 1


  • Composer: Charles-Auguste de Bériot


  • Conductor: Kirk Trevor


  • Orchestra/Ensemble: Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra


  • Performer: Philippe Quint