Salvatore Accardo has already recorded the six Paganini violin concertos for DG with Dutoit and the LPO, and these recordings and much other Paganini repertoire besides (including the 24 Caprices, Op 1) are currently available in a six-disc DG bargain box. They are superbly played and beautifully accompanied and the DG analogue sound balance, made in a warm ambience, is consistently flattering. Now Phone Italia has prevailed on Accardo to re-record the concertos. Don’t be confused by the appearance of ‘No 0’, which is otherwise known as No 6, a posthumous work discovered in London as recently as 1972. The accompaniment, originally written for a guitar, was developed into its orchestral form very convincingly by Federico Mompiello (who had previously orchestrated No 5). Musicologists have now dated it from just before the First Concerto (hence its ‘0’ designation here), and it might be regarded as a try-out for that famous work, for it has a rather similar if not so memorable lyrical secondary theme in the first movement and plenty of solo spectacle in the finale.
Indeed all six works are formulaic with extended, sometimes over-extended tutti s, interleaved with attractively Italianate melodies of some individuality, and kept alive by the violin fireworks. Accardo’s technical skills and his persuasive musical reponse to works which can easily seem empty, is as impressive as ever, as are his dazzling pyrotechnics. The finales have great rhythmic style and aplomb. Accardo directs the orchestral accompaniments too, and finds plenty of drama in the tutti s, while coaxing the players to support him tastefully in the operatic lyrical melodies. The snag is the recording, which lights up the solo violin very brightly indeed, and brings a fierceness to the orchestral strings in all the fortissiomo s, which I often found wearing on the ears. Marvellous solo playing, but then Accardo is no less dazzling on the earlier DG set, which is the one to go for