Guy Braunstein (violin)
Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège, Alondra de la Parra (ALPHA869)
Guy Braunstein, who has recently been on tour with the Delius Violin Concerto, was concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for nearly fifteen years, and is now pursuing an international career as soloist, conductor and composer. His lifelong passion for the music of the Beatles led him to compose this suite for violin and orchestra which includes all the greatest hits of John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, performed here with the Liege Royal Philharmonic under a longstanding musical partner, the Mexican conductor Alondra de la Parra. To accompany this first recording, two English works for violin and orchestra, The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams and the rarely performed Violin Concerto of Frederick Delius, which – like so many Beatles hits – was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London!
“… there’s joy to be had when the tunes, and Braunstein’s sweet tone, are allowed to speak for themselves. Plus, he’s a magnificent advocate for the Delius.” BBC Music Magazine
https://outhere-music.com/en/albums/guy-braunstein-abbey-road-concerto
Guy Braunstein on the Delius Concerto
It’s a piece that’s almost disappeared from the repertoire altogether, and to explain how I discovered it we have to start with Elgar: I’ve had a deep personal connection with his Violin Concerto since I was too small to get anywhere near it, and it’s kind of become my calling-card. Why? When I was growing up in Israel there was only one television channel, and one night after the 9 o’clock news (so peak viewing-time) they broadcast his Cello Concerto with Du Pré and Barenboim – all the poor football fans must’ve got a surprise!
I was instantly hooked: even though the violin was my instrument, I was desperate to find a way to play that piece. But then I found out that Elgar also wrote a violin concerto…Yehudi Menuhin came to Tel Aviv to play it, as did Pinchas Zukerman in 1982, and I decided when I was old enough and able enough I would learn and perform it myself.
When I worked in Berlin I was very close with Daniel Barenboim, who pointed me in the direction of the Albert Sammons recording: very few people know it these days, but Daniel said he considered it the reference-recording. The dedicatee Fritz Kreisler never recorded the piece, and Sammons was its first champion – but he didn’t want to record it with Elgar, because Elgar was a terrible conductor! They played it together a zillion times but Sammons just wanted someone better for the recording, so he did it with Henry Wood. Yehudi Menuhin was very young but already a great politician, and he said ‘Screw the fact that Elgar can’t conduct: he’s the composer, and that’s what’s going to make my recording famous.’ And he was right – he’s known for this concerto, but Sammons was and maybe still is the definitive interpreter.
Anyway, I said to Daniel that I’d never heard of Sammons, and a few days later he gave me a copy of his Elgar recording. I was sitting on the floor in my studio doing my taxes the next day with the CD playing in the background, and once the Elgar finished the recording went straight into some fantastic music that was completely unfamiliar to me: that was the Delius concerto. I thought I’d found a new favourite composer, but when I explored further I didn’t find anything else by Delius that was nearly as good…I find a lot of his music quite simplistic, but the Violin Concerto is something else: there’s nothing quite like it in the concerto literature of any country, and every time I play it it’s a total discovery for the orchestral players. If any conductors happen to be reading this, please know that I’m ready to do that piece day or night!