Search - Johann Sebastian Bach, Bela Bartok, Alban Berg :: Bach/Bartók/Berg: Concertos & Sonata for Violin

Classic tributes to a great artist

Mark McCue | Denver | 05/10/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"These items from the '50s wing their way across the decades as a tribute to one of the century's most innovative and progressive violinists.Gertler was a "psychological" interpreter, not in the same bizzare category as Sinopoli or a few others, but one who thought in a musical way about what the composer as an artist was facing at the time he/she produced the work at hand. This allowed Gertler to point the listener toward the music itself and away from the occasional shrillness or gutty tone we sometimes hear. In a way, it's like listening around Callas or Crespin duck a high note, or Rubenstein hitting a clinker. You simply don't care because at this interpretive level it matters very little.If you don't know these exceptional readings, get this excellent CD and keep the memory of a great artist alive."