![]() In the Barber Concerto, Wicks’ warm, heartfelt approach to the composer’s early lyrical style is fitting, whilst the finale is dashed off with panache and élan. As an encore she plays Bjarne Brustad’s “Trollkvenna” (“The Troll’s Windmill”) - fourth movement from Eventyr ( Fairytale) Suite for solo violin, a sort of chromatic roulade with pizzicato thrown in for good measure. It’s obvious at the end that the audience don’t share my misgivings. She does, however, capture the Russian melancholy of the slow movement. The fiendishly tricky double-stop passage in the development section of the first movement sounds rushed, though the cadenza which follows is technically secure. I find Steinberg’s conducting here rather pedestrian, which doesn’t inspire the violinist to give of her best. As a performance, I found it the least successful of the three ‘big’ concertos. Sound quality is more of an issue with the 1953 performance of the Tchaikovsky Concerto from the Hollywood Bowl. The slow movement is eloquently phrased and, once again, those expressive slides come into play. In the first movement Wicks employs the Joachim cadenza. The Brahms Concerto from forty-five years later has to be one of the finest I’ve heard. Although the sound quality belies its age, the performance is thrilling. The second movement is ardent, and the third boasts a well-articulated line. The second subject is lyrical, and the employment of expressive slides and position changes is a positive feature of the violinist’s artistry. Busch mirrors Wicks’ pushing forward in the first movement. The conductor is none other than Fritz Busch, brother of the famous Adolf, another great violinist. Of the core repertoire works, CD 1 opens with a rhythmically propulsive account of the Mendelssohn Concerto from 1949. Whilst standard fare constitutes a large proportion, the inclusion of less well-known composers is a positive bonus. This welcome box set redresses the balance by considerably expanding her discography. Her discography is relatively small, amounting to a single CD from Music and Arts containing live performances of the Beethoven and Sibelius Concertos, a couple of CDs on the Norwegian Simax label ( review ~ review) and a Biddulph CD. This important tranche of material derives from both the vaults of radio archives and Wicks' own collection. In the 1960s she resumed playing in public, with the generous gift of a violin by her friend Ruggiero Ricci, and became a much sought after teacher. ![]() In the 1950s, she abandoned her career, selling her 1725 Duke of Cambridge Strad, married and raised five children. Several wrote works for her including Bjarne Brustad, Fartein Valen, Hilding Rosenberg, Harald Saeverud and Klaus Egge. ![]() Wicks always remained in touch with her roots and, throughout her career, promoted music by Scandinavian composers. Sibelius, himself, was very taken by her interpretation, and she performed it in his presence on the occasion of his eighty-fifth birthday. ![]() The work was to become her calling card, and she made a commercial recording of it in 1952, now elevated to legendary status ( Biddulph 80218). Her Carnegie Hall debut came in 1946 with the New York Philharmonic under Artur Rodziński in which she performed the Sibelius Violin Concerto. ![]() She debuted at Town Hall, New York in 1942, accompanied by Persinger, and a year later took second prize in the prestigious Leventritt Competition. At ten she went to study at the Juilliard with Louis Persinger, teacher of Menuhin and Ricci. Aged eight she had progressed onto the Bruch and Paganini Concertos. Early lessons with her father resulted in a debut at the age of seven playing the Mozart D major Concerto K 218. Her father was an eminent violinist and teacher, and her mother played the piano, having studied with Xaver Scharwenka. Wicks was born in California in 1928 of Norwegian parentage. The names of Ginette Neveu, Johanna Martzy, Ida Haendel and Erica Morini are four others that immediately spring to mind. Support us financially by purchasing this fromĬamilla Wicks (violin) - Five Decades of Treasured PerformancesĬamilla Wicks was one of a group of elite female violinists who forged distinguished careers in the mid to late twentieth century. ![]()
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