Ruggiero RicciSir Adrian Boult · Jean Fournet

Piero Gamba · Sir Malcolm Sargent

ROMANTIC VIOLINCONCERTOS

BEETHOVENMENDELSSOHN

BRUCH DVORÁK

Eloquence

CD 1 70’07

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)

Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 611 I Allegro ma non troppo 23’122 II Larghetto 9’303 III Rondo (Allegro) 9’28

London Philharmonic OrchestraSir Adrian Boult

FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847)

Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 644 I Allegro molto appassionato 12’495 II Andante 7’486 III Allegro non troppo – Allegro molto vivace 7’02

Netherlands Radio Philharmonic OrchestraJean Fournet

CD 2 55’57

MAX BRUCH (1844-1908)

Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 261 I Vorspiel (Allegro moderato) 7’502 II Adagio 8’163 III Finale (Allegro energico) 7’18

London Symphony OrchestraPiero Gamba

ANTONÍN DVORÁK (1913-1976)

Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 534 I Allegro ma non troppo – Quasi moderato 10’255 II Adagio ma non troppo 11’336 III Finale (Allegro giocoso – ma non troppo) 10’15

London Symphony OrchestraSir Malcolm Sargent

Ruggiero Ricci, violin

Total timing: 126’04

Among these four great nineteenth-centuryconcertos, the Beethoven D major standsalone. The conductor of this recording, SirAdrian Boult, characterised it as ‘perhaps themost thoughtful concerto, the one whichneeds for the violinist to be a great man as wellas a great player’. Yet it had an inauspiciousstart in the concert hall, in Vienna in 1806. Itsfirst performer, Franz Clement, apparently avery neat, Classical player, executed varioustricks between the first and secondmovements, including one in which he playedthe violin upside down. It was left to thegreatest player of the century, Joseph Joachim,to rescue the work from virtual oblivion,starting with a London performance on 27 May1844, when he was only thirteen.

The conductor that evening was FelixMendelssohn, who was still working on hisown highly original contribution to the genre –it would be premiered in Leipzig the followingMarch by its dedicatee Ferdinand David. Noother violin concerto appears quite so perfect,perhaps because it had a seven-year gestation– and even after ‘finishing’ it, the composercontinued to work on it before it waspublished. The most original stroke is heardstraight away: the usual opening orchestraltutti is dispensed with, and after one-and-a-half

bars of ‘accompaniment’ the soloist enters.Mendelssohn also writes out the cadenza in thefirst movement, rather than leaving it to thesoloist; and he links all three movements sothat the piece is heard continuously.

Mendelssohn, David and Joachim allinfluenced Max Bruch’s most famous work,the G minor Concerto, which in 1864–8 wentthrough all kinds of contortions including twopremieres before emerging as a popularfavourite. Mendelssohn’s influence is clear inthe outline of the work, and David advised ondetails, as he had with Mendelssohn’s E minor.But the main shaping hand was Joachim’s: hefirst saw it in the summer of 1866 and gavethe first successful performances early in1868. For various reasons Bruch made virtuallyno money out of the concerto and he died instraitened circumstances.

Joachim again had a major role in determining the final form of Antonín Dvorák’s A minorConcerto. It was written in the late summer of1879 and dedicated to Joachim, who bothsuggested wholesale changes and made a fewhimself, but kept the concerto for two yearsbefore rehearsing it at the Berlin Hochschule.He never played it in public and it has neverquite caught on, although its first performerFrantisek Ondrícek had success with it – the

premiere took place in Prague in 1883 – and virtually every great violinist has performedit. The first movement is rather foreshortened,which may have told against the work withJoachim, but the transition to the lovely slow movement is magical and the finale hasgreat spirit.

The performer on these discs, Ruggiero Ricci,went through a number of transformations inthe course of a long life which still vigorouslycontinues. Born to Italian immigrant parents onPresidio army base, San Francisco, on 24 July1918, he was named Woodrow Wilson Rich byan army doctor but christened Roger AlexisRich. His father was a self-educated trombonistand bandmaster and his six siblings were allmusical – violinist Emma and cellist Georgebecame professionals. The piano wasRuggiero’s first love but his father was set onhis becoming a fiddler. At eight he went toLouis Persinger, whose assistant Beth Lackeytook him and George off to New York andsupervised his five hours of daily practice. It wasshe who suggested the boys should revertprofessionally to their father’s real surnameRicci and take the Italianate first namesRuggiero and Giorgio.

Ruggiero made his debut on the West Coast on15 November 1928, billed prodigy-style as an

eight-year-old. On 20 October 1929 he playedthe Mendelssohn Concerto at MeccaAuditorium, New York, with Henry Hadleyconducting the Manhattan Orchestral Society,and received rapturous notices. A Carnegierecital followed on 29 November and he wasback at Mecca Auditorium a year later to playthe Beethoven Concerto.

An unsettled period ensued. He hadunsuccessful lessons with Mishel Piastro in1931, toured Europe in 1932 – appearing inBerlin with Bruno Walter and in Budapest withErnst von Dohnányi, billed as an eleven-year-old – studied with Georg Kulenkampff inGermany and the Auer disciple Paul Stassevichin Norway and America, then returned toPersinger. He first appeared in London in 1934.

At sixteen he nearly gave up the violin for thepiano. ‘Then one day I came across a pile of oldnewspaper cuttings and I realised how reallygood I had been just five years earlier. If I hadbeen that good at eleven, there was no reasonwhy I couldn’t get back on form.’ He achievedthis feat through a note-by-note analysis ofPaganini’s Caprices. Paradoxically World War II,which seriously interrupted his career, was themaking of him artistically. He was attached tothe U.S. Army Air Force’s Western Commandas ‘Entertainment Specialist Ricci’, one of five

leaders of a crack orchestra in uniform. Heperformed a vast range of concertos and inrecitals was often required to play without apiano, which reinforced his predilection for theCaprices. Most fiddlers would be content to beable to play Paganini’s Moto perpetuo – Ricci’sparty trick was to play it backwards.

After the war Ricci made several world tours,visiting the Soviet Union three times. Hepremiered Ginastera’s Concerto in 1963 and vonEinem’s Concerto in 1970; and introducedPaganini’s Fourth and Sixth Concertos toAmerica, as well as music by Goehr, Rodrigo,Lees, Pizzetti, Flury, Arnold, Jacques-Dalcrozeand Zimmermann. He maintained a repertoireof some 50 concertos, of which he was generallyready to play 30 or 40 at short notice, andunearthed pieces by violinists such as JosephWhite, Bull, Spohr and Ernst. After more thanfive thousand appearances in 65 countries, hegave his last public performances in 2003.

Ricci has taught at Indiana University, theJuilliard School, the University of Michigan andthe Salzburg Mozarteum. At various times hehas been based in Europe or America and henow lives in Palm Springs, California, givingmasterclasses in the Los Angeles area under theauspices of the Jascha Heifetz Society. He hasplayed hundreds of Stradivari and Guarneri

violins (even Paganini’s Guarnerius) since hefirst borrowed a Strad in 1929. From 1957 hismain instrument was the 1734 ‘Gibson’Guarnerius del Gesù.

The first of Ricci’s 500-plus recordings – whichinclude two versions of Bach’s Sonatas andPartitas and half a dozen of the 24 PaganiniCaprices, one on video – were made on 78rpmdiscs for His Master’s Voice before the war. On26 and 27 January 1950 he began a long seriesfor the British Decca label with the TchaikovskyConcerto, accompanied by the New SymphonyOrchestra under Sir Malcolm Sargent. Thecharacteristic Ricci resinous tone, intensevibrato and slightly crunchy bow attack werevividly captured by the Decca engineers, oftenheaded by the legendary Kenneth Wilkinson.

Three of the recordings here were made in thefamous acoustic of Kingsway Hall and Riccirecalls: ‘I was on the stage and the orchestrawas down where the audience sits. I had acompletely separate place, whereas most of thetime, when you record with orchestra, you’restanding in front of the concertmaster’s placeor next to the conductor. In Kingsway Hall, youwere completely separated like in an opera. Inan opera, the orchestra is in the pit and thesinger has a special place all alone up thereseparate from the orchestra. When you’ve got

the fiddle standing in front of theconcertmaster, you don’t have much separationof sound. That’s why the old way – in KingswayHall – was much better. They had youseparated.’ Of the supervisor of the Beethovensessions, he says: ‘I remember that at Decca, Ihad a very good producer, John Culshaw. Hewas really terrific – the best one they had.Decca got the best sound and that was him.You can’t beat the sound they got. It’s hard toequal that.’

For the Bruch Concerto he was accompaniedby the young Piero Gamba, who as ‘Pierino’had been a child podium prodigy. ‘I think theythought they’d put the two of us together –the two young guys. I guess they thought itwas a good gimmick.’ Of his producer forthose sessions, he says wickedly: ‘I rememberJames Walker. He was such a conservative guy.When he used to drive, he wouldn’t go morethan 30 miles an hour or something on thehighway. Amazing! He was the slowest driveron the road.’

Of the Mendelssohn recorded at Hilversum, hissecond version of the work for Decca, hereminisces: ‘What I remember is that Irehearsed it and some girl violinist was there atthe rehearsal and she said, “I was amazed athow fast you played the first movement. It was

too fast.” And so I paid attention to the idiotand I said to the conductor when I went back,“I think we’ll do it a little bit slower.”’

Tully Potter

PHO

TO: D

ECCA

Ruggiero Ricci

Recording producers: John Culshaw (Beethoven); Raymond Few (Mendelssohn); Erik Smith, JamesWalker (Bruch); Ray Minshull, Christopher Raeburn (Dvorák) Recording engineers: Kenneth Wilkinson (Beethoven, Dvorák); Arthur Bannister (Mendelssohn);Kenneth Wilkinson, Cyril Windebank (Bruch)Recording locations: Kingsway Hall, London, UK, February 1952 (Beethoven), January 1957 (Bruch),January 1961 (Dvorák); AVRO Studio, Hilversum, The Netherlands, August 1974 (Mendelssohn)Eloquence series manager: Cyrus Meher-HomjiArt direction: Chilu Tong · www.chilu.comBooklet editor: Bruce Raggatt

480 2080