Album Notes

The recording of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto marks the end of a long, long project of mine. I remember clearly when I first heard the piece. Violinist Robert McDuffie, and his performance of the Mendelssohn concerto in Spartanburg, SC under the baton of Sir Yehudi Menuhin, had inspired me to completely immerse myself in the repertoire and to learn the violin. My dad had an old LP recording of the Tchaikovsky performed by Jascha Heifetz. However, the reaction was a bit different from the Mendelssohn. It only took the first movement, particularly the several bars of double stops starting at bar 176, for me to come to a similar conclusion of the first critic of the concerto: the violin was not played, but rather "beaten black and blue". Eventually, the piece began to grow on me and now, although I wouldn't say it's one of my top favorites, I love it. It's full of a lot of interesting, very distinct soloing. I think this concerto is one of the more different ones in the Romantic repetoire. It's not as mysterious or dark as the Sibelius or as emotional as the Bruch but it's got a certain amount of ingenuity to it that makes it stand out the most perhaps. I began the transcription in London in 1991 and completed it a few years later after it dawned on me that a full transcription was in reach. Looking back, I wish I had chosen a piece that wasn't as monstrously difficult. In fact, for violinists, this is definitely one of the most difficult (probably the most difficult) of the Romantic concertos. Brahms had Joachim to advise him on the solo part, Mendelssohn had David, Saint Saens had Sarasate, and Sibelius was an aspiring violinist himself. Tchaikovsky had no consultation and no firsthand knowledge. The result is solo writing that is sometimes unwieldy (it’s original dedicatee, Leopold Auer, even declined to play it stating that it was “impossible”). At the same time, I was happy at how well the piece adapted to the guitar. The transcription is probably about 99 percent accurate to the original violin part. Recording the piece was a frightening ordeal that I knew I had to eventually force myself to complete. It's finally available and I hope you derive as much satisfaction from listening as I did upon the completion of the recording!