Search - Max Bruch, Felix [1] Mendelssohn, Giuseppe Sinopoli :: Mendelssohn, Bruch: Violin Concertos

No finer performance of either work.

D. R. Schryer | Poquoson, VA United States | 12/16/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Gil Shaham's performance of the Bruch Concerto has no competetion. It is simply sublime. His performance of the Mendelssohn Concerto is also outstanding, nudging out my previous favorite -- the superb performance by Frank Peter Zimmermann which, regretably, is currently out of print. Shaham is an excellent violinist with a uniquely gorgeous tone. Some of his recent performances, while gorgeously played, have disappointed me somewhat artistically. But not this album (which I believe was his debut recording). This is one of the two or three greatest violin recordings I have ever heard."

Sensuous and powerful

Steve Sanders | Chicago, IL | 12/18/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"These are sensuous recordings. Shaham plays with both technical fire and (especially in the Mendelssohn) pleasing sweetness. The orchestra -- large and lush in the Bruch, a bit more restrained in the Mendelssohn -- plays with discipline, precision, and power, and the sonics are very satisfying. These surely count as exemplary if not definitive modern renditions of these two classic concerti."

Shaham and Sinopoli were a great team

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 07/15/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Perhaps not since the partnership of Furtwangler and Menuhin after the war have we had such a brilliant collaboration as that between Gil Shaham and the late Giuseppe Sinopoli. (Rostropovich makes a fine, sympathetic duo with Vengerov, but Sinopoli is a much better conductor in standard non-Russian repertoire.) On this CD, Sinopoli's startling drama in the Bruch is something I've never heard the likes of. There is such sweep and passion that you hear the work as having much more emotional depth than before. Shaham keeps pace with a powerful reading full of nuance and original thoughts on a thrice-familiar work. Maxim Vengerov has a towering recording of the Bruch on Teldec with Masur (where the soloist is miked more clesly than here), but this one is worthy to stand alongside.



On that Teldec CD Vengerov's Mendelssohn concerto felt a bit careful, with less than vivacious conducting. Shaham begins with a delibreate first movement that's almost 2 min. slower, expressing his intent to give us weightier Mendelssohn than the airy, mercurial variety we're used to. In keeping with that, his tone is big and he plays with broad phrasing. The Andante is also slow and deeply felt. I was happy to go along with the interpretation as long as the finale brought in a flood of light and fancy for contrast. It doesn't quite. Shaham chooses not to be sprightly but to remain a bit straight-faced--even so, one can't overlook his exceptional ability to communicate. Call it a tie with Vengerov."