Beethoven & Lentz - Violin Concertos
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Label: Pentatone
Cat No: PTC5187240
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: Orchestral
Release Date: 25th April 2025
Contents
Artists
Arabella Steinbacher (violin)Luxembourg Philharmonic
Conductor
Gustavo GimenoWorks
Violin Concerto in D major, op.61Violin Concerto '...to beam in distant heavens...'
Artists
Arabella Steinbacher (violin)Luxembourg Philharmonic
Conductor
Gustavo GimenoAbout
Violinist Arabella Steinbacher, the Luxembourg Philharmonic and conductor Gustavo Gimeno present violin concertos by Beethoven and Lentz. Beethoven's Violin Concerto may well be the most iconic contribution to its genre, and to Steinbacher, it is the most 'sacred' and sublime in the repertoire, never ceasing to reveal new perspectives. The piece is coupled with Georges Lentz's Violin Concerto ' ...to beam in distant heavens...', written for Steinbacher and inspired by her virtuosity. Lentz's concerto is equally inspired by William Blake's poetry, as well as the idea that a future generation will one day look back on us and the way we destroy our planet. Oscillating between violence and angelic visions of love and hope, it places heavy demands on the soloist, and offers an illuminating counterpart to Beethoven's equally searching and idealist work. Luxembourg Philharmonic and Gustavo Gimeno are the ideal partners for this cosmic, adventurous pairing.
Arabella Steinbacher is a multiple award-winner with an extensive PENTATONE discography, including Bach & Pärt (2023), Mozart's complete violin concertos (2014 and 2021), Four Seasons (Vivaldi & Piazzolla, 2020), Mendelssohn & Tchaikovsky Violin Concertos (2015) and many others. The Luxembourg Philharmonic and Gustavo Gimeno released composer monographies of Coll (2021), Franck (2020), Rossini (2019), Debussy, Stravinsky & Mahler (all 2018) as well as Ravel, Bruckner and Shostakovich (all 2017) on PENTATONE.
Arabella Steinbacher is a multiple award-winner with an extensive PENTATONE discography, including Bach & Pärt (2023), Mozart's complete violin concertos (2014 and 2021), Four Seasons (Vivaldi & Piazzolla, 2020), Mendelssohn & Tchaikovsky Violin Concertos (2015) and many others. The Luxembourg Philharmonic and Gustavo Gimeno released composer monographies of Coll (2021), Franck (2020), Rossini (2019), Debussy, Stravinsky & Mahler (all 2018) as well as Ravel, Bruckner and Shostakovich (all 2017) on PENTATONE.
Sound/Video
Paused
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1Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D major, op.61: 1. Allegro ma non troppo
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2Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D major, op.61: 2. Larghetto
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3Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D major, op.61: 3. Rondo. Allegro
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4Lentz: Violin Concerto ‘...to beam in distant heavens...’: Lento
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5Lentz: Violin Concerto ‘...to beam in distant heavens...’: bar 78 [Vivace]
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6Lentz: Violin Concerto ‘...to beam in distant heavens...’: bar187
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7Lentz: Violin Concerto ‘...to beam in distant heavens...’: bar 212 [Vivace]
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8Lentz: Violin Concerto ‘...to beam in distant heavens...’: bar 370 – An Elegy for our Grandchildren’s Planet
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9Lentz: Violin Concerto ‘...to beam in distant heavens...’: bar 415
Europadisc Review
Munich-born violinist Arabella Steinbacher – an artist exclusive to the Pentatone label since 2009 – has a history of programming repertoire classics with more recent compositions. Previous albums have included Bach alongside Arvo Pärt, and Vivaldi coupled with Piazzolla. Her latest album, however, is much more adventurous: she pairs that mighty edifice of the concertante repertoire, Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, with a substantial new work that she herself commissioned from Luxembourg-born composer Georges Lentz (based in Australia since the 1990s). Both are works on broad canvases, encompassing both huge tuttis and moments of remarkable spiritual intimacy.
Beethoven’s work is famous for having stretched the solo violin to its limits when it was composed in 1806, and it has been one of the summits of the concerto genre ever since. Lentz’s concerto, entitled ‘...to beam in distant heavens...’ and premiered by Steinbacher in Sydney two years ago, is likewise both ambitious in scale and technically challenging (Lentz is an accomplished violinist in his own right). And the good news is that they make a magnificent and generous coupling on disc.
Compared to Steinbacher’s previous recording of the Beethoven Concerto (a 2009 Orfeo disc with the WDR Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons) this is a fleeter affair, and much the better for it, shaving a full two minutes off the vast first movement. Yet it still captures the work’s monumental scale, with a well-focused and finely detailed recording (credited to a team from Polyhymnia International) made in the Grand Auditorium of the Philharmonie Luxembourg. The orchestra is the Luxembourg Philharmonic, under its chief conductor, Gimeno, and they are in fine form from the outset, the famous opening timpani strokes clear (with hard sticks) and nicely in tune (not always the case, even in some august recordings). The first orchestral tutti is both incisive and stylish, and there’s a glassy beauty to the upper strings which is matched by the soloist.
Steinbacher’s playing has an aristocratic bearing, not shy of deploying vibrato (which will please traditionalists), but it also gives the music space to breathe as well as splendid rhythmic poise. While attentive to the fine detail, this is a reading that never loses sight of the bigger picture, successfully reconciling the music’s Classical heritage with its Romantic ambitions, as well as bringing out its quintessentially Beethovenian qualities: muscular energy and a broad lyrical undertow.
The great central Larghetto is very special, the soloist’s tone (on the 1744 ‘Sainton’ Guarneri) sweet but never cloying, and the accompanying solos from clarinet and bassoon beautifully matched. Indeed the voicing of the wind section as a whole is one of this performance’s many strengths, and there’s also some exquisitely quiet playing from the strings. The concluding Rondo is wonderfully buoyant without ever losing poise, and in the G minor passage the bassoon solo against the violin’s arabesques is again a highlight. Steinbacher’s finely-etched playing ensures that, even when she doesn't have the main thematic material (as in the run-up to the cadenza), the figuration cuts through without dominating. As in the first movement, she plays Kreisler’s cadenza as to the manner born. Among recent recordings of this masterpiece, this one stands out for successfully combining traditional values with an infectiously airy energy and stylishness, soloist, orchestra and conductor in ideal harmony.
Informed by influences as varied as environmentalism, the wide yet fragile expanses of the Australian Outback, the visionary poetry of William Blake, and the grand tradition of violin concertos, ‘...to beam in distant heavens...’ is the most recent part of Lentz’s multi-work ‘Mysterium’ project (for a variety of forces, from small-scale to large) which has been evolving since the late 1990s.
It opens strikingly (in a very literal sense) with an almighty percussive crash, and a quiet, long-held bass note underpinning the soloist (now playing the 1718 ‘Benno Walter’ Stradivarius), who is offstage to the listener’s left for the first two-and-a-half minutes. There she mulls over some well-worn solo figurations before a group of six orchestral violins respond, and finally she is onstage with more adventurous, cadenza-like material, some of it barely whispered.
At length she is joined by the main orchestra (notably some otherworldly gongs) as the music moves without a break to the second section of this continuous 36-minute work. As the violin explores, sometimes tentatively, at others with more determination, the orchestra creates a challenging yet evocative soundscape, with generous use of percussion, spatially suggestive winds and cavernous low strings.
The third section is ethereal but troubled, pierced by high offstage strings which are answered by low strings and gongs. A more reposeful solo passage does little to dispel the haunting, funereal feel, before the music takes a more animated turn, the soloist now agitated and harried. This in turn gives way to a more extended solo cadenza – featuring glassy harmonics and soulful musings that rise gradually from low to high register (more harmonics); the technical challenges increase as the cadenza becomes more animated, with fitful accents.
A sinister underpinning of the cadenza’s closing bars leads to the work’s emotional core: ‘An Elegy for our Grandchildren’s Planet’. In her booklet note, Steinbacher notes that ‘This piece makes me feel as if I’m floating in outer space, looking down on the earth from this endless expanse, with the awareness of being part of the bigger picture.’ And indeed the soloist (now very much centre-stage) seems to be musing here far above a distant, widely-spaced orchestra of enormous dimensions.
The concerto’s final section gradually gains a more immediate perspective, becoming increasingly agitated and building to a final big bang (or perhaps it is a ‘big crunch’?), so that the piece ends on the same startling ‘singularity’ with which it began.
This is a boldly ambitious work, challenging for both performers and listeners, but in the committed hands of Steinbacher and her colleagues Lentz’s music is thoroughly gripping as well as tackling big questions. As such, it handsomely repays repeated listening, and by no means pales beside its more celebrated coupling. With a playing time of some 80 minutes, this is a particularly generous disc, recommendable for the Beethoven alone, but given substantial added value by Lentz’s bold, compelling music as championed by this superb soloist.
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