Joe Venuti

Joe Venutis Koncert (review) by Svend Asmussen (translated & transcribed)

It was a pleasant surprise that the Copenhageners' preliminary interest in Venuti's exclusive, cultured style was so great that the large hall was practically full. But I also don't think that afterwards there was a single person who regretted the cost of the ticket and considered the evening wasted.  

What therefore surprised me the most was that Venuti's playing was perfectly correct in every respect from a "classical” times better impression than what you get from the records. It was already noticeable with the first number, "Wild Cat." This little number from the album with Venuti and Lang is one of the best known in this country, among others, because it is Otto Lington's regular brilliant number. The fine clarinet accompaniment he has arranged for this, Venuti thinks is excellent and used it himself.

I still think that Venuti would have been wiser to take "The Cat" with Frank Victor alone, as on the record. Because no matter how softly and discreetly the clarinets blew, due to their jagged, firm wind tone, they seemed deafening compared to the airy, shrill violin tone. Many were initially a little disappointed. But it didn't last long. When you had learned a bit not to like the piercing, often quite sharp and basically unviolin-like sound from the records, you realized that it was much better in reality. What a tone! The gentlest heat violin tone from a precious old Cremonese. However, was docile like the gypsies in Budapest, but not vapid like theirs. It was not big, but wonderfully graceful and charming.

And then the bow technique!

It was very liberated and relaxed, as you only find it in a few great virtuosos. That side of Venuti's violin playing was actually so completely correct that it can be described as ideal. The third side, the left-hand technique, was certainly excellent, the purity impeccable; but here, however, there is undeniably a great leap to the fantastic, unfailing safe bed, which, for example, Milstein, who is just visiting the city, possesses. It thus happened repeatedly to Venuti that fairly light flageolettes failed completely. The many cadences, trills, lobs, things and things that he shook out of his sleeve in abundance, indeed sound very difficult and bribery. But quite apart from the fact that it is all very easy and natural, it is all like phrases that he has used countless times over the years.

It also turned out, as with Armstrong, that there was very little that could really be called nothing at all within the program itself. "Wild Cat" was thus carefully worked through and gens every time. Likewise, "Doin' Things" and "Wild Dog", which are two of Venuti's very best compositions; the forest with the adorable, little recurring motif from Debussy's "The maiden with the flaxen hair" as the basis.

"Wild Dog" contains two good ideas: the four-bar staccato rise and the middle section in broken chords over the strings, while the slow theme seemed a bit too haphazard and over-grounded. The small potpourri of well-known melodies began as "Pardon Me". The cadence was the same as on the record, the melody itself partly improvised in a lovely light and handy style with an excellent rhythmic swing. "Tea For Two" was played very beautifully and imaginatively varied, while "I Got Rhythm" in a devilish tempo gave Joe the opportunity to shine with his phenomenal bow. But he did not allow himself to improvise at that pace. "Little Man" and "Sweet Sue" were played in the old style as "Tea For Two" and "Pardon Me" respectively.

Together with the orchestra, "Fiddlestick" was given an excellent presentation, especially at the second concert, when V.s. tone flick the right soloistic touch with the help of the microphone. "Tiger Rag" was not particularly exciting. The whole long introduction with the many breaks was improvised, but all the figures were familiar, and one in particular was repeated endlessly. It seemed very funny after the first chorus in A major to go up a semitone with violin and guitar solo (it's much easier now to play in cross-tones on the ham, isn't it, Mr. Venuti?). "Romantic Joe" was a quite endearing little solo number that contained good ideas that were, however, not entirely original (e.g. points of similarity with Svendsen's violin romance).

Venuti is often referred to above all as a four-string specialist. I do not know whether he may have invented the style himself; in any case, he is the one who has cultivated it especially and with great success.

The tone is here again surprisingly beautiful and clear, the purity is actually impeccable. Few people know how difficult four-string techniques really are, especially in terms of purity and tone! After the small slow solo introduction, which had an almost organ-like character, fragments of various records came, e.g. “Tempo di Barrel” and “Four-String Joe”. What a swing both of you slowly and fast pace! The two places that seemed to require the most fabulous technique, however, I must unfortunately reveal son pure and cut, albeit nifty bluff. One was the overcoming break, which was repeated several times and which we know from "Sunshine"; The second was the small ending that was attached to the whole solo. It originates from the "Tempo di Barrel". Both consist in aimless swaying in rather risky and random sounds, and merely require dissolving with the right timbre on a certain part of the beat. Venuti also played a perfectly suitable little melody as a four-string encore. It happened with mute in the microphone, which further accentuated the splendid soft organ tone.

In addition, V. played with Lington's orchestra "Then I'll Roll With You". The second trumpet, Bendtsen, had made a clever arrangement in which he let Nathansen roll out on his B-Bas, "for it should be something like Rollini"! Unfortunately, the good ideas in this arrangement did not quite come into their own because of the hall's unsuitable acoustics, which unfortunately prevented the orchestra from getting the right collection and attack of the otherwise sonorous ensemble playing. The solos, on the other hand, were all fine. Thus Carlsen's good trumpet improvisations and, above all, Bix Beiderbecke's excellent piano solo, to which Stangerup gave an excellent performance exposed the marimba with an ingenious accompaniment of piano, bass clarinet and bass.

Frank Victor was an excellent finger and plectrum technician. His solos were a very mixed character. The first, closest slow-waltz contained several technically difficult passages, it was executed with an impressive dexterity. The musical value, on the other hand, was garbage. This was even more true of the next solo, which during the first concert consisted of a plane less chromatic curling up and down the grip row with strange sounds and similar with all too facile bluffing devices. The tone was, in my opinion, just as small; it was flat and small. In the microphone, on the other hand, it has just the right sound, as on Lang's records; It was his old guitar. The third, rhythmic solo was much better, and it was above all played with a huge swing, which quality in my opinion makes him a better accompanist for Venuti than Lang was.

The encores were the greatest experience at both concerts. Joe and Frank were apparently both delighted, watched over the huge applause and played what was asked for. Both "Dinah", "Some of these days", “Four-String Joe", "Nagasaki", “Limehouse Blues" and "Running Ragged" etc. Now they were both freed from any bit of nervousness and revealed their best qualities. When one melody was finished, Venuti passed directly into another, giving Victor the opportunity to show his great agility. In particular, "Some of these days" was excellent; pure improvisation with brilliant, truly original ideas, including a complete triol game (TBD).

It took a long time before the two stars were allowed to pack their instruments for the enthusiastic audience, and Venuti must surely be believed by his words that he has never yet in his magnificent career been the subject of such stormy applause.

Svend Asmussen

SOURCE: Joe Venutis Koncert by Svend Asmussen, h.o.t. tidsskrift for modern music, 7 Oktober November (1934) (translated & transcribed).