 Les tempos sont vifs, l’orchestre historiquement informé, et Gil Shaham probablement plus libre qu’il ne l’aura jamais été. Adieux cette sévérité qui corsetait son art alors que sa glorieuse sonorité l’avait porté au firmament des jeunes violoniste de son temps, son archet s’est émancipé du beau son mais sans perdre son rayonnement, et une fantaisie guide ses phrasés pleins d’imagination. Ecoutez-le faire l’Ange tout au long d’un Beethoven comme improvisé où les Knigthts jouent avec lui, quasiment dans son violon. Le Larghetto pris vraiment larghetto est comme chanté par une soprano mozartienne, plus rêveur que murmuré, flutant le trait d’entrée, je ne l’ai jamais entendu comme cela. Et le Démon ? Pour l’opus de Brahms bien évidemment, Shaham y ressuscitant les hungarismes de Joachim et pas seulement dans un final diabolique. La grande phrase pastorale de l’Adagio est plus delta du Danube que Lac de Thoune ! et l’Adagio plutôt andante ! Mais le plus étonnant reste bien le poème orageux de l’Allegro ma non troppo, où l’archet bataille plus qu’il ne domine pour mieux s’envoler dans des arabesques de chanteur. Passionnant nouveau volume d’une collection où l’un des violonistes majeurs de notre temps se réinvente ! (Discophilia - Artalinna.com) (Jean-Charles Hoffelé) Gil Shaham partners for this recording with Brooklyn-based The Knights, conducted by Eric Jacobsen, musicians with whom he feels fortunate to collaborate with on a regular basis. The Knights believe that having an enormous amount of fun is the best way of accomplishing serious musical work, so it’s only natural that the World’s happiest orchestra teams up with the world’s happiest violinist! Brothers and Knights Artistic Directors Colin and Eric Jacobsen are in the business of disseminating musical pleasure, add Gil Shaham to the mix, and musical utopia beckons! This is Gil Shaham’s first solo release in almost 5 years, and his first recording of the Beethoven violin concerto, arguably the most anticipated addition to his recorded oeuvre. Shaham was captivated growing up listening to David Oistrakh’s recording of the Beethoven over and over again; and it continues to inspire awe in him. Despite the 1000’s of times he played the Beethoven live in concert, the whole emotional journey is as fresh here on this recording as if he was playing it for the first time. In his own words “If there is ever music which changes and effects the soul, this is it.” live performance with Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. This recording is all together a different affair, bringing together an artistic approach and partnership bordering on the intimacy in chamber music making —watching, listening, responding— but a much larger-scale masterpiece. Shaham’s swift tempo in the first movement of the Brahms, facilitates the wildest flight of virtuoso deftness, the Boston Musical Intelligencer observing in a performance of the Brahms at Tanglewood in 2019, days before this recording took place, that Shaham ‘exercised sovereign command in both the virtuosic and the lyrical passages, sort of going back and forth between being a gymnast and a gentleman, with cleanly focused, gleaming tone.” This is Gil Shaham’s second recording with The Knights, the first in 2016 resulted in the Grammy nominated recording of Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 (CC-16), part of Shaham’s 1930s Violin Concertos project. Booklet annotations are penned by the celebrated author and academic Styra Avins who sheds an interesting perspective the role Beethoven and his Violin Concerto played in Brahms composing his only concerto for the instrument and the vital role Joseph Joachim played in both concertos.
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