The new album from violinist Liza Ferschtman sees the unique coupling of two lyric concertos: Korngold’s Violin Concerto, op.35 and Bernstein’s Serenade after Plato’s “Symposium”.

Korngold’s Violin Concerto was completed in 1945. This is a beautiful, late Romantic work that harks back clearly to Korngold’s earlier compositional style, when he was a younger man living in Vienna. Every movement of the Concerto is scattered with fragments from a range of his film scores. The Violin Concerto was a huge success at its premiere, not least due to the performance by Jascha Heifetz as soloist. The 1950s, a period when Korngold’s career and indeed his life were drawing to a close, were a most productive time for Leonard Bernstein. He was achieving major successes on Broadway with his musicals. The Serenade for violin, strings, harp and percussion had its premiere in Venice in 1954. There were two factors behind the composition. He had accepted a commission from the Koussevitzky Foundation. Also, he had long been promising a new piece for his close friend, the violinist Isaac Stern. Both of these commitments coincided in the Serenade, an extremely lyrical, five-movement work, akin to a violin concerto.

Dutch violinist Liza Ferschtman is known for her passionate performances, interesting programmes and communicative qualities on stage. Ferschtman’s worldwide appearances include performances with BBC National Orchestra of Wales and London Philharmonic and Dallas and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras. Recent highlights have been the performance of Bach’s complete solo works in Amsterdam and a concert tour with the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Iván Fischer of which The New York Times wrote: “...with Dutch violinist Liza Ferschtman bringing refined beauty and character to the solo part of the Bernstein [Serenade] ...the concert was nothing short of revelatory”.

Sound/Video

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Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35: I. Moderato nobile
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Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35: II. Romanze
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Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35: III. Allegro assai vivace
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Serenade After Plato's “Symposium”: I. Phaedrus: Pausanias. Lento and allegro
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Serenade After Plato's “Symposium”: II. Aristophanes. Allegretto
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Serenade After Plato's “Symposium”: III. Eryximachus. Presto
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Serenade After Plato's “Symposium”: IV. Agathon. Adagio
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Serenade After Plato's “Symposium”: V. Socrates: Alcibiades. Molto tenuto and allegro molto vivace)

Europadisc Review

With so many fine recordings of Korngold’s perennially popular Violin Concerto in the catalogue, a crucial question when considering the many choices is what the coupling is. Other works by Korngold himself? A concerto from the great nineteenth-century tradition (Tchaikovsky has been a popular choice)? Another twentieth-century violin concerto – and, if so, by whom? This new recording from Dutch violinist Liza Ferschtman comes up with a particularly satisfying solution: Bernstein Serenade after Plato’s ‘Symposium’, composed in 1954, just nine years after the Korngold work, by another composer who successfully blurred the boundaries between classical and popular music (including, like Korngold, film scores). Tying in neatly with the current Bernstein centenary celebrations, the two works were recorded live in 2017 at separate venues and with different orchestras and conductors, yet the coupling works perfectly, Bernstein’s edgier mid-century style acting as a perfect foil to Korngold’s opulent late-Romantic scoring and lavish gestures.

In the Korngold Concerto, Ferschtman is accompanied by the Prague Symphony Orchestra under Jiří Malát: a particularly happy choice, for not only was Korngold born in the Czech lands (in Brno), but the orchestra was initially founded in the 1930s as the Film-Opera-Koncert orchestra (the acronym FOK is still part of its official title), straddling genres much as Korngold’s Concerto does with its numerous quotes from the composer’s film music. The musicians are clearly at home in the lush, swirling textures of this semi-Hollywood score, and they provide the perfect support for Ferschtman’s luxuriant but supple tone, shimmering beautifully in the work’s famous opening bars, and matching the soloist’s sensitivity to the tiniest nuance.

Ferschtman herself is both ideally expressive and technically peerless. Wonderfully shadowed by Malát and his players, she brings out all the delicate emotion of the central Romanze without tipping over to the wrong side of the indulgence line, while in the dazzlingly alert finale she achieves that crucial balance between singing tone and virtuosic display which Korngold himself wanted. Regardless of coupling, this performance is up among the very best on disc, with all the engagement and frisson of a live performance but none of the drawbacks (the Ludwigshafen audience is immaculately behaved).

In Bernstein’s Serenade, Ferschtman is joined by the strings and percussion of the Arnhem Philharmonic (Het Gelders Orkest) under Christian Vásquez. Organised around the central characters of Plato’s Symposium as they discourse on the various natures of Love, this work has also been interpreted as a series of self-portraits revealing Bernstein’s own character traits. A beguiling mixture of influences comes into play, including Bartók, Stravinsky and Shostakovich, and though it’s much less widely recorded than the Korngold Concerto, Ferschtman makes the best possible case for a piece that is among the finest of Bernstein’s ‘classical’ works. Evidently in complete harmony with the Arnhem Philharmonic players, she highlights the varied characters of each movement without recourse to exaggeration, from the fragile opening, through the Stravinskian coolness of Aristophanes and the snappy exchanges of Eryximachus to the luminous intensity of Agathon’s Adagio. Best of all is the finale, where the expansive, noble wisdom of Socrates is interrupted by the riotous high spirits of Alcibiades, bringing the work to a thrillingly animated, jazz-infused conclusion. Challenge Classics’ excellent recording brings a wide dynamic range to bear, so that the listener really feels the involvement of this urgently committed performance. With a most attractive coupling, this is an exceptionally fine addition to Liza Ferschtman’s growing discography, and a great way to celebrate Bernstein year to boot!

Reviews

The Korngold ... receives a fairly heart-on-sleeve interpretation, with extrovert and energetic qualities to balance any hint of excessive swoop. In this live performance, Ferschtman’s sound is big and rich, full of personality and fizzing with ideas, but she’s also capable of that special trick of melting while maintaining poise and elegance. ... I look forward to hearing lots more from Ferschtman. Jessica Duchen

BBC Music Magazine May 2018