Richard Strauss : Don Quixote (Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Knightly Character), Op. 35
Alfred Wallenstein, cello
René Pollain, viola
Michel Piastro, violin
Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York
Sir Thomas Beecham, conductor
Recorded 7 April 1932 in Carnegie Hall, New York
Matrix nos.: CSHQ 71658-1, 71659-1, 71661-2, 71663-1, 71665-2, 71666-2, 71668-1, 71669-1, 71671-1 and 71672-2
First issued as Victor 7589/93 in album M-144 (USA) and as Columbia LX 186/90 (UK)
Transfer and remastering by Mark Obert-Thorn

Ernest Bloch : Violin Concerto
Joseph Szigeti, violin
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Sir Thomas Beecham, conductor
Live recording, 9 March 1939 in Queen’s Hall, London
First issued on The Sir Thomas Beecham Society (USA) LP WSA-5
XR remastered in Ambient Stereo by Andrew Rose

I have not been able to play the new Bloch Violin Concerto often enough to acquire more than an impressionistic idea of it, but I feel safe in saying that I shall enjoy the music more rather than less under the test of reiteration, What has interested me to notice in reading criticisms of this concerto is the sense of security conferred by the ability to study the recording. What a boon the gramophone is ! The first performance of this work was given at Cleveland on December 15th, 1938, and the first performance in England on March 9th of this year. On both occasions Szigeti was the artist, as he is in this Columbia album of four 12 in. discs. For the concert performance in this country he was assisted by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Thomas Beecham, but in this recorded performance he is assisted by the Orchestra of the Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire with Charles Munch as conductor. To quote from the Columbia leaflet: “ The Violin Concerto, recorded here was, so far as its composer can trace its derivation, the work of several years (1930-7). Bloch cannot recall precisely how the many sketches for the work originated and “ still less how they happened to be gathered together to form a whole.” “ They arose,” he says, “mostly on the inspiration of the moment and with no preconceived idea of a Violin Concerto, though most of them were orchestrally or ‘ violinistically ’ conceived.” He continues, “ however, music being for me a kind of language, it is easy to discover in the chosen material that went to make this Concerto, parentage or affinities, either in the expressive or the purely musical-thematic frame of the motives. They combine with each other in a rather intricate way throughout the score, appearing and disappearing like characters in a drama. But it would be impossible for me to delineate any plan or * programme : in this work—I can only say there is in it no ‘ Jewish J inspiration or intention as was the case with my ‘ Israel ’ Symphony, ‘Schelomo’ Rhapsody or the Three Jewish Poems, for instance. The idea of the Concerto itself may date from 1935 when part of the introduction was written in Paris. Its progress was several times interrupted—for the completion of two works which I had already partly written and for the composition of the orchestral suite, ‘ Evocations.’ The Concerto was finished at Chatel, Haute Savoie, in January, 1938.” There is no greater embarrassment for a creative artist than to invite him to reveal the inspiration of one of his works, and if at the end of that attempt by Bloch to expound his violin concerto we are no wiser than we were before the blame must rest not on the composer but on the indiscreet enquirer. What I take it readers of this paper will want to know first is whether this new work is so modern that unless they have been conquered by the fascination of atonality they will be baffled by it. I can assure them at once that if they enjoy the Sibelius Concerto they will enjoy this Concerto. That does not mean that there is any particular affinity between the music of Bloch and Sibelius, but that the music of both composers is comprehensible with an equal amount of attention and goodwill. It is never music on another plane requiring a gymnastic effort of the ordinary mind to reach. So much by way of first impressions. I hope that the gramophone public's suspicion of any novelty will not discourage Columbia from further enterprises of this kind. It is idle to pretend that the man or woman who acquires this Concerto will be able to hum it through after the first hearing, but I know my own reactions to a fresh piece of music well enough by now to be sure that this will become a favourite concerto of mine, and I know my readers well enough by now to be sure that my reactions are like those of the majority of my readers. Compton MacKenzie