Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op. 47 Bronislaw Gimpel, Pro Musica Orchestra Stuttgart & Hakan von Eichwald

• Jean Sibelius (1865 - 1957): Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op. 47:
• 1Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op. 47: I. Allegro moderato16:02
• 2Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op. 47: II. Adagio di molto08:01
• 3Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op. 47: III. Allegro, ma non tanto07:39
• Total Runtime31:42

Info zu Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op. 47

Sibelius completed the first version of his Violin Concerto in 1903, the premiere took place in Helsinki the following year (performed by Victor Novacek), however without notable success. The concerto was revised and successfully performed in Berlin in 1905 by Karl Halir, under the direction of none other than Richard Strauss. Today it has a firm place in the core repertoire for violin and is regarded as one of the most beautiful concertos ever written for this instrument. Strangely enough, for the last 25 years of his life the successful composer wrote nothing, remaining isolated from and largely indifferent to contemporary trends in music.

In the present recording the Violin Concerto is performed by the Polish-American violinist Bronislaw Gimpel (1911-1979). Gimpel war already having a successful career in the 1930ies, touring Europe and South America, before the political situation in Europe forced him to emigrate in 1937 to the United Stated. He served in the U.S. Army from 1942 until the end of the war, when he resumed his solo career in Europe. During one of these concert tours he recorded in 1957 Sibelius' Violin Concerto with the Pro Musica Orchestra Stuttgart (Germany), conducted by the Finnish-Swedish conductor Hakan von Eichwald.

Bronislaw Gimpel, violin
Pro Musica Orchestra Stuttgart
Hakan von Eichwald, conductor

Digitally remastered

Bronislaw Gimpel
was a violinist, conductor, and teacher. He was born on 29th January 1911 in Lviv, and died on 1st May 1979 in Los Angeles. Gimpel started learning to play the violin when he was five. He was taught by his father, Adolf, a conductor and head of a theatre in Lviv. Gimpel continued his education in the class of Moritz Wolfstahl in Lviv Conservatory, where he also debuted in 1919. He later studied in the class of Robert Pollack at Akademie für Musik in Vienna (1922-26) and in the class of Carl Flesch in Berlin (1928-29).

His international career began with a performance in Vienna in 1925. In 1926 Gimpel performed for Pope Pius XI and the royal couple. For the subsequent three years he went on tour throughout Europe and the Americas. In the years 1929-31 he was the concertmaster of the chamber orchestra in Kaliningrad, and from 1931 to 1936, the orchestra in Gothenburg. In 1935 he won the 9th award at the 1st edition of the Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition. From 1936 to 37 he taught violin at the Music Institute in Lviv.

From 1937 on, Gimpel lived in the United States. Between 1937 and 1942 he ran the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. From 1945 to 1950 he was a concertmaster and head of the ABC Radio Symphony in New York. Gimpel kept on giving concerts – he performed all over the world, including in Poland, frequently together with the pianist Władysław Szpilman. He was most appreciated for his interpretations of Ludwig van Beethoven’s sonatas, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s violin concertos, and sonatas and partitas by Johann Sebastian Bach. In 1962, Gimpel and Szpilman formed the Warsaw Quintet, which had the following line-up: Bronisław Gimpel (first violin), Tadeusz Wroński (second violin), Stefan Kamasa (viola), Aleksander Ciechański (cello), and Władysław Szpilman (piano). The quintet debuted abroad at Wigmore Hall in London in January 1963.

In 1967 Gimpel became a professor of the School of Fine Arts of the University of Connecticut.

He recorded many albums for numerous important record labels, such as Brunswick, Vox, and Polskie Nagrania. The last record by Gimpel was the sonatas of Franck and Claude Debussy, recorded together with Szpilman, released by Polskie Nagrania in 1978.

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