This is the second disc in Albrecht Laurent Breuninger’s survey of the surviving (or available) music for violin and orchestra of the “Polish Paganini”. Karol Lipinski was certainly that–this is violin music of astonishing brilliance–but Lipinski also was a composer of some substance. Don’t get me wrong, he was no Beethoven, but his first violin concerto, composed in 1822 in the remarkable key of F-sharp minor, blows away the pale effusions of, say, Spohr and his crowd. This is in fact a full-blown Romantic concerto of extremely ambitious length (42 minutes), in three very large movements. The finale, which lasts about 18 minutes, is a rondo based on a marvelous Russian theme, and throughout the thematic workmanship is often amazingly memorable. Harmonically the work is also quite colorful, and (it would seem) advanced for its time.
Lipinski spent a good part of his early career as a pit-orchestra violinist, and his familiarity with the nascent world of German Romantic opera (as in Weber) also is evident here. Occasionally what sounds like a bit of classical-period style sticks its tongue out, revealing that Lipinski’s language was not quite consistent, but that only makes the juxtaposition of elements more interesting. The Rondo alla polacca and Variations are less interesting in this respect, but still pretty stupendous as bravura works for violin and orchestra, and the quiet ending of the variations is as surprisingly effective as it is poetic.
On the whole, the performances are very good. Lipinski was famed for his huge sonority, and in this respect Breuninger comes up a bit short. He has a tendency to “murmur” in soft passagework, and he can sound a touch wiry, but he certainly has the chops for the busy moments (of which there are many), and he achieves some very impressive feats of accurate intonation in absurdly high positions. I do wish the contribution of the orchestra had been more vivid, with more attention given the winds and some more presence from trumpets and drums where they appear. Here’s a case where a touch of “authenticity” wouldn’t have hurt. It’s true that Lipinski pays the greatest attention to the violin, but his orchestration is by no means inadequate to his purposes and should not be made to sound so. Warm engineering completes an easily recommendable release for violin lovers.
