An Unearthed Premiere

An important archive recording on this month's BBC Music magazine cover disk. It is a vintage recording from 1936 of the British premiere of Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No 2 played by the French violinist for whom it was written, Robert Soetens, with the BBS Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Henry Wood. As would be expected the sound isn't great, the worst aspect being the balance with the orchestra playing somewhere in the middle distance while the soloist is up close and personal. But the main point of interest is Soetens's interpretation and this is heard to advantage. No longer a name that stands out in the recorded history of the music, he nevertheless shows the abilities that encouraged Prokofiev to dedicate the work to him. I have a contemporary version of the piece by Nickolaj Znaider in clear modern sound which I would turn to in future if I wanted to hear Prokofiev's Violin Conerto No 2 but I'm pleased to have heard this premiere. The disk also contains a recent Wigmnore Hall concert recording of Prokofiev's Violin Sonata No 2 by James Ehnes on violin and Andrew Armstrong on piano. This was a transcription that Prokofiev made of an earlier flute sonata and had stellar advocates in Oistrakh and Richter. Ehnes and Armstrong make a strong current case for the work in fine sound.