Favorite Performances

This is a list of my favorite performances or recordings of the standard violin concerto repertoire, and perhaps a couple that are not yet so standard.  The word “favorite” does not necessarily mean “best,” it just means the one I enjoy the most or the one that speaks to me best or the one I favor for reasons I can’t readily explain.  Just as are my choices of violinists who are profiled here, the list is completely arbitrary.  You will notice that Heifetz figures somewhat prominently and perhaps he would have been named even more times but there are many concertos which he – to the best of my knowledge - never recorded: the Barber, Berg, Dvorak, Haydn, Khachaturian, Mendelssohn 1, Saint Saens 3, Schoenberg, Schumann (!!!), Shostakovich, Stravinsky, and Vivaldi.  Heifetz is named 12 times; Isaac Stern is named 1 time,  Gil Shaham is named 2 times; Michael Rabin is named 2 times; all the rest only once.  Not counting Vivaldi, there are 42 concertos included. I also threw in a few concert favorites which are not concertos but are very frequently played. 

Actor                        Pip Clarke

Bach 1                      Vladimir Spivakov

Bach 2                      Isabelle Faust

Barber                      Elmar Oliveira

Beethoven                Arabella Steinbacher

Berg                         Ivry Gitlis

Brahms                     Jascha Heifetz

Bruch 1                     Isaac Stern

Bruch 2                     Jascha Heifetz

Conus                       Jascha Heifetz

Dvorak                     Joseph Suk

Elgar                        Jascha Heifetz

Glazunov                  Ilya Kaler

Haydn 1                    Judith Ingolfsson

Khachaturian            Leonid Kogan

Korngold                  Jascha Heifetz

Lalo 2                       Joshua Bell

Mendelssohn 1         Yehudi Menuhin

Mendelssohn 2         Gil Shaham

Mozart 3                   Arthur Grumiaux

Mozart 4                   JuliaFischer

Mozart 5                   Jascha Heifetz

Paganini 1                Michael Rabin

Paganini 2                Tedi Papavrami

Paganini 3                Henryk Szeryng

Paganini 4                Uto Ughi

Paganini 5                Salvatore Accardo

Prokofiev 1              Jascha Heifetz

Prokofiev 2              Jascha Heifetz

Saint Saens 3           Zino Francescatti

Schoenberg              Zvi Zeitlin

Schumann                Frank Zimmermann

Shostakovich 1        Leonid Kogan

Shostakovich 2        Itzhak Perlman

Sibelius                    Jascha Heifetz

Stravinsky                Hilary Hahn

Tchaikovsky            Tossy Spivakovsky

Vieuxtemps 4           Jascha Heifetz

Vieuxtemps 5           Jascha Heifetz

Vivaldi 1-50             Fabio Biondi

Vivaldi 50-100         Giuliano Carmignola

Vivaldi 100-150       Simon Standage

Vivaldi 150-200       Enrico Onofri

Walton                     Jascha Heifetz
Wieniawski I           Gil Shaham 

Wieniawski II         Michael Rabin 

Zigeunerweisen       Joseph Lendvay 
Zigeunerweisen      Arthur Grumiaux 
Zigeunerweisen       Mischa Elman 

Zigeunerweisen       Leila Josefowicz 
Tzigane                    Jascha Heifetz 

Poeme                      Jascha Heifetz 
Rondo Capriccioso Leila Josefowicz 

Bach Chaconne       Viktoria Mullova 

Norman Carol

Norman Carol is an American violinist and teacher born (in Philadelphia) on July 1, 1928.  He is best known for being the Philadelphia Orchestra’s concertmaster from 1966 to 1994.  Among orchestral musicians and concert artists around the world, his name is instantly recognized.  When musicians speak of concertmasters, Norman Carol is one of a small handful who immediately come to mind.  He began his violin studies at age 6 and made his first public appearance at age 9.  At age 13, he entered the Curtis Institute (Philadelphia) from which he graduated in 1947.  There, he studied with Efrem Zimbalist (one of Leopold Auer’s famous pupils) and William Primrose, among others.  In that same year, Carol, then 18 or 19 years old, was invited (by conductor Serge Koussevitsky) to join the Boston Symphony but Carol declined.  He gave his Town Hall debut two years later – April of 1949.  He was 20 years old.  The debut was very successful and was highly praised.  Interestingly, Carol then joined the Boston Symphony (first violin section, but I don’t know at which desk) and played in that orchestra from 1949 until 1952.  Thereafter, he embarked on a solo career which was soon interrupted by the Korean War.  After his military service, he restarted his solo career but was soon tempted to join the New Orleans Symphony as concertmaster.  He remained there between 1956 and 1959.  In 1959, Carol became concertmaster of the Minneapolis Symphony and stayed until 1965.  He and conductor Stanislaw Skrowaczewski began their tenures with the Minneapolis Symphony in the same year.  In 1965, Eugene Ormandy chose Carol to lead the Philadelphia Orchestra as concertmaster and his career there began in the 1966-1967 season.  He was 39 years old.  His first of dozens of appearances with the orchestra took place on December 26, 1966.  However, he had already appeared as soloist with the orchestra back on March 12, 1954, during his brief concertizing career.  On that occasion he played the Mendelssohn concerto.  He played (in 1966) the Barber concerto, the same concerto which Albert Spalding had premiered with the orchestra (with Ormandy on the podium) in 1941.  Coincidentally, Carol was by then playing the same violin Spalding had used for his premiere performance of this concerto.  [On November 13, 1954, Carol  made his New York Philharmonic debut, playing Mozart's fifth concerto.]  Carol stayed in Philadelphia for 28 seasons.  His retirement in 1994 was mostly due to a shoulder injury he had sustained three years previously.  Other violinists who have sustained injuries which affected their careers are Rodolphe Kreutzer, Bronislaw Huberman, Jascha Heifetz, Nathan Milstein, and Erick Friedman.  It is likely that only concertmasters Richard Burgin (Boston Symphony) and Raymond Gniewek (Metropolitan Opera Orchestra) exceed his longevity with a single orchestra.  He may also have been the first to play the concertos of Benjamin Britten, Paul Hindemith, and Carl Nielsen, as well as Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade in Philadelphia.  In 1979, Carol began teaching at the Curtis Institute and is still teaching there.  He has played a 1743 Guarnerius del Gesu since about 1957.  It had been previously owned by Felix Slatkin, father of conductor Leonard Slatkin, and by Albert Spalding before him.  He has also owned a 1966 Sergio Peresson violin and a 1695 Stradivarius previously owned (and played) by American violinist Leonora Jackson and, before her, by Emil Mlynarski (one of the founders of the Warsaw Philharmonic and father-in-law of pianist Artur Rubinstein.)  One of Norman Carol's recordings – done for RCA in 1958 – is available here.