0028948421503

Ruggiero Ricci - Complete Decca Recordings

Ruggiero Ricci; Various Orchestras

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Format: 20CD

Cat No: ELQ4842150

Release Date:  19 November 2021

Label:  Australian Eloquence

Packaging Type:  Box Set

No of Units:  20

Barcode:  0028948421503

Genres:  Classical  Orchestral  

  • Description

    The most complete tribute ever issued to the fiendish fingers and sublime artistry of a true virtuoso, Ruggiero Ricci - a feast of concerto, solo and recital repertoire recorded by Ricci, collected together for the first time, and including a previously unpublished set of the Brahms Violin Sonatas. This 20CD Limited Edition boxset complete with original jackets is divided into three sections: Violin and Orchestra; Solo Violin; Violin and Piano.

    Born Roger Rich to an Italian immigrant father on a Californian army base in 1918, he became Ruggiero Ricci when he was introduced to the New York musical public as a child prodigy violinist. By the time of his debut on Decca – the Tchaikovsky Concerto conducted by Sargent in 1950 – he was an experienced performer and recording artist who had already stunned audiences on both sides of the Atlantic with the solo-violin repertoire he would make his own: not only Bach but also Ysaye, Wieniawski and most of all Paganini, whose Caprices he was the first to record complete later in 1950. At the close of the Tchaikovsky sessions, the musicians of the New Symphony Orchestra burst into spontaneous applause.

    A new and typically illuminating essay by Tully Potter on Ricci’s life and recorded legacy draws on previously unpublished correspondence and sheds light on the background to many of these recordings.

    Notable records of Ricci’s famous cantabile in concerto repertoire include a hugely influential Paganini album with Anthony Collins and a gripping account of the Sibelius with Oivin Fjeldstad. There are two recordings of the Mendelssohn (1957 and 1974), the first with another ‘prodigy’, the conductor Piero Gamba, and the second recorded in Decca’s Phase 4 stereo with Jean Fournet. He strikes sparks in partnership with Ernest Ansermet for Ravel’s Tzigane and the solos in Tchaikovsky’s Orchestral Suites. These (Suites Nos. 3 and 4) as well as sections featuring the solo violin, from the Fistoulari ‘Phase 4’ recording of Swan Lake, are included in this collection.

    Decca partnered Ricci with several notable pianists for recital repertoire, starting with his former teacher Louis Persinger and including Friedrich Gulda. Many of these chamber recordings (a Sarasate album, sonatas by Weber, Richard Strauss and Prokofiev) were made not in the Decca studios but in Ricci’s home in New Jersey. While he recorded the Second and Third Brahms Sonatas with Julius Katchen in London in 1957, he also taped the cycle of three sonatas at home with Katchen three years earlier. These 1954 performances are issued here for the first time: essential listening for all fans of great violin playing.

    “This young American’s really remarkable accuracy in playing the most difficult passages is certain to cause many a trained fiddler to mop his forehead in amazement.� American Record Guide, July 1951 (Paganini Caprices)

    “I look forward to more discs by this first-rate duo … His natural elegance … stands him in good stead in the Prokofiev, where his partner at the piano also distinguishes himself by some most artistic leggiero playing.� Gramophone, October 1953 (Prokofiev & Strauss Sonatas)

    “There is some truly amazing fiddling here ... combining faultlessly brilliant technique with unusually warm tone … A ‘must’ for all violinists.� High Fidelity, October 1954 (Paganini Concertos)

  • Tracklisting

      Disc 1

      Side 1

      • 1. BEETHOVEN: Violin Concerto In D Major, Op. 61
      • 4. TCHAIKOVSKY: Violin Concerto In D Major, Op. 35, TH.59

      Disc 2

      • 1. PAGANINI: Violin Concerto No. 1 In D Major, Op. 6
      • 4. PAGANINI: Violin Concerto No. 2 In B Minor, Op. 7
      • 8. RAVEL: Tzigane – Concert Rhapsody For Violin And Orchestra

      Disc 3

      • 1. SIBELIUS: Violin Concerto In D Minor, Op. 47
      • 4. TCHAIKOVSKY: Serenade Melancolique; Scherzo (from Souvenir D’un Lieu Cher)
      • 7. KHACHATURIAN: Violin Concerto In D Minor

      Disc 4

      • 1. MENDELSSOHN: Violin Concerto In E Minor, Op. 64
      • 4. BRUCH: Violin Concerto No. 1 In G Minor, Op. 26

      Disc 5

      • 1. PROKOFIEV: Violin Concerto No. 1 In D Major, Op. 19
      • 4. PROKOFIEV: Violin Concerto No. 2 In G Minor, Op. 63

      Disc 6

      • 1. LALO: Symphonie Espagnole, Op. 21
      • 6. SARASATE: Carmen – Fantaisie De Concert, Op. 25
      • 11. SARASATE: Zigeunerweisen, Op. 20 No. 1
      • 14. SAINT-SAENS: Havanaise, Op. 83
      • 15. SAINT-SAENS: Introduction Et Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 28

      Disc 7

      • 1. TCHAIKOVKSY: Violin Concerto In D Major, Op. 35, TH.59
      • 4. DVORAK: Violin Concerto In A Minor, Op. 53, B.108

      Disc 8

      • 1. MENDELSSOHN: Violin Concerto In E Minor, Op. 64, MWV O14
      • 4. TCHAIKOVSKY: Violin Concerto In D Major, Op. 35, TH.59
      • 7. TCHAIKOVSKY: Swan Lake, Op. 20 (excerpts)

      Disc 9

      • 1. TCHAIKOVSKY: Suite No. 3 In G Major, Op. 55
      • 5. TCHAIKOVSKY: Suite No. 4 In G Major, Op. 61 ‘Mozartiana’

      Disc 10

      • 1. PAGANINI: Caprices, Op. 1 (1950 Recording)

      Disc 11

      • 1. PAGANINI: Caprices, Op. 1 (1959 Recording)

      Disc 12

      • 1. BARTOK: Sonata For Solo Violin, Sz.117
      • 5. STRAVINSKY: Elegie For Solo Violin
      • 6. PROKOFIEV: Sonata In D Major For Solo Violin, Op. 115
      • 7. HINDEMITH: Sonata For Solo Violin, Op. 31 No. 1
      • 8. Sonata For Solo Violin, Op. 31 No. 2

      Disc 13

      • 1. JS BACH: Sonata No. 1 In G Minor For Solo Violin, BWV 1001
      • 5. JS BACH: Partita No. 2 In D Minor For Solo Violin, BWV 1004
      • 13. WEBER: Six Sonates Progressives For Violin And Piano, Op. 10

      Disc 14

      • 1. RICHARD STRAUSS: Violin Sonata In E Flat Major, Op. 18
      • 4. PROKOFIEV: Violin Sonata No. 2 In D Major, Op. 94a

      Disc 15

      • 1. BEETHOVEN: Violin Sonata No. 7 In C Minor, Op. 30 No. 2
      • 5. BEETHOVEN: Violin Sonata No. 10 In G Major, Op. 96

      Disc 16

      • 1. BRAHMS: Violin Sonata No. 1 In G Major, Op. 78
      • 4. Violin Sonata No. 2 In A Major, Op. 100
      • 7. Violin Sonata No. 3 In D Minor, Op. 108

      Disc 17

      • 1. BRAHMS: Violin Sonata No. 2 In A Major, Op. 100
      • 4. Violin Sonata No. 3 In D Minor, Op. 108

      Disc 18

      • 1. SARASATE: 8 Danzas Espanolas
      • 9. Caprice Basque, Op. 24
      • 10. Introduction Et Tarantelle, Op. 43
      • 12. Zigeunerweisen, Op. 20

      Disc 19

      • 1. PAGANINI: Le Streghe, Op. 8 (arr. Kreisler)
      • 2. Fantasia On The G String (after Rossini’s ‘Mose In Egitto’)
      • 3. Moto Perpetuo, Op. 11
      • 4. Introduction And Variations On ‘Nel Cor Piu Non Mi Sento’ For Solo Violin
      • 5. Variations On ‘God Save The King’, Op. 9
      • 6. La Campanella (arr. Kochanski)
      • 7. Sonata In E Minor, Op. 3 No. 6
      • 8. I Palpiti, Op. 13 (arr. Kreisler)

      Disc 20

      • 1. WIENIAWSKI: Scherzo-Tarantelle, Op. 16
      • 2. ELGAR: La Capricieuse, Op. 17
      • 3. VON VECSEY: Caprice No. 1 For Violin And Piano: Le Vent
      • 4. KROLL: Banjo And Fiddle
      • 5. CHOPIN: Nocturne No. 20 In C Sharp Minor, Op. Posth. (Trans. Milstein)
      • 6. SMETANA: Andantino (Z Domoviny)
      • 7. SUK: Burleska (Four Pieces For Violin And Piano, Op. 17 No. 4)
      • 12. ACHRON: Hebrew Melody
      • 13. SARASATE: Jota Aragonesa, Op. 27
      • 14. HUBAY: Der Zephir (from 6 Blumenleben For Violin And Piano, Op. 30 No. 5)
      • 15. MOSZKOWSKI: Guitarre, Op. 45 No. 2 (arr. Sarasate)
      • 16. BAZZINI: La Ronde Des Lutins – Scherzo Fantastique, Op. 25