Britten, Piano Concerto, Violin Concerto, Tasmin Little/ Howard Shelley/ BBC Phil/ Gardiner (Chandos)Sometimes I'm grateful for the e-mails that Amazon send, helpfully alerting me to a new release, and at other times I'm less so. Their profiling system isn't perfect, as can be seen from some of the 'classical' items that a previous purchase has generated from their fuzzily matched recommendations, but just once or twice I have been glad to know about something among the many wild stabs they have had at guessing how they nmight sell me another unit. I have just spent a few minutes unsubscribing myself from several mailing lists that make my inbox look much more popular than I really am but, so far, Amazon have survived the cut.
I ordered this without too much scrutiny since it was advertised to me as 'Tasmin Little's new recording'. Yes, I suppose it is. But only half of it. I searched the notes in vain for where the violin part came in the Piano Concerto and, of course, there isn't one. Howard Shelley's account of it is bravura and flashy and climactic but I'm afraid the piece goes to great lengths to say not very much to me and then we are given an alternative (original) third movement and put into a less charitable mood before Tasmin comes on.
And so it was that it wasn't until the third and fourth playings of the Violin Concerto that I began to relent a little bit and gradually feel more grateful for having my attention drawn to it. The concerto still has the orchestra turned up to 9 in places but in the solo violin passages, we can hear the bleak, soulful Britten and Tasmin's sure, sensitive touch bringing it alive and one is grateful for its sotto voce ending.
The notes report some early criticism of the piece that suggested Britten was being 'too clever' and there certainly is such a thing but there is also 'too passionate' or emotiveness for its own sake. So perhaps it's a difficult balance to find to please some critics but if this concerto isn't among his best known works, it is one to return to again in future, with moments of both virtuoso and imaginative brilliance to be had regularly and throughout.
The principle to bear in mind when offered goods by mega-retailers on-line, who know they can tempt you who can buy with no more than one click of a computer device, is 'caveat emptor'. Think, think and think again. If, in olden days, you had been in a record shop and found the item in the racks, would you have immediately snatched it up and rushed to the cashier's desk. And, if you would, that's fine. But there might equally be something else that you'd like more for the same price. Luckily, I'm happy to support Tasmin in whatever she does.