Simone Lamsma’s recording of Spohr violin concertos with Sinfonia Finlandia under Patrick Gallois has been chosen as CD Pick of the Week by Classical WETA.
Classical WETA is Washington's only classical music radio station.
Three Spohr concertos have been newly recorded by the award-winning Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma.
Louis Spohr (born Ludwig Spohr in Braunschweig in 1784, but preferred to use the French form of his name) was a composer, conductor, and touring violinist. His violin concertos were his first claim to fame, although he also wrote music in almost every genre of the day, including symphonies, string quartets and operas.
He is also remembered as one of the first to promote the use of a baton (in his case, a violin bow) to conduct an orchestra. While visiting England, he wrote, “The manner of conducting at the theatres and concerts here is the most preposterous which can be imagined.” He found orchestras that were led, more or less, by two people at the same time. “He who is styled ‘conductor’ in the bills, sits at the piano and plays from the score, but neither marks time nor gives the tempi; this the ‘leader’ or first violinist ought to do.” It’s said that when Spohr first took charge using a bow, some musicians feared he might use it as a weapon.
Concerning his violin concertos, he took a dim view of improvised cadenzas. Spohr believed that “showing off” was in the worst possible taste, pandered to the audience and devalued the music. Where he wrote cadenzas at all, in only a few concertos, they were short and written out note for note. No use encouraging an overconfident soloist, apparently.
This new release of Spohr’s violin concertos 6, 8 and 11 features Simone Lamsma, who made her debut at 14 with Paganini’s First Concerto, and won first prize in the 2005 China International and the 2004 Britten International Violin Competitions, as well as the 2003 Dutch National Violin Competition. Flutist Patrick Gallois conducts these lively performances by the Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä.
