Search - Arthur Grumiaux, Sir Colin Davis :: Mozart: The Violin Concertos

Deserves better reviews and reviewers

Wayne A. | Belfast, Northern Ireland | 01/20/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"These recordings were, for many years, considered to be among the best available. This is delightful old-style Mozart (meaning not period instrument) played beautifully and with character by the artists. I'm happy to see them reissued in a form that gives them some recognition and dignity (instead of the kitschy budget-box format they've been seen in earlier). That and better sound. Philips has not been "packing" the discs in this series so the selling point can be "79 minutes of music!". Someone with taste and discretion did the selecting and if any compromises were made in this entire series it was toward a good sampling of the classical repertoire. I'm annoyed, as I've encountered endless moaning and voiding in reviews of a lot of the Universal re-releases from the last decade. We're lucky to see ANY of these recordings in print.



The only way to hear Haskil and Grumiaux play together (and wonderfully) is through old recordings. Sorry. Clara Haskil was a great keyboard artist who specialized in much older repertoire back when most were still focusing on the Romantic works. Few things bug me more in Amazon reviews than people getting all astonished and huffy about their Toscanini or Schnabel CDs sounding old and then betraying their ignorance of the whole genre by publicly advertising their annoyance. I think its asking too much to have Amazon list the recording dates as these are not always easy to find on a CD package and error would be rampant. A little research--say Google Haskil and find out who she was--is required.



Like most of this series, these will probably be going out of print soon and that should make all the sonic perfectionists and re-packaging authorities happy-as-heck. Recommended to them--cheap Naxos discs with modern unknowns who play without any emotional connection with the music, or Sony recordings of 9-year-old Japanese freak-show wunderkinds wowing their way digitally through technicolor Mozart. I'll stick with Scherchen and his "awful" Vienna orchestra with "awful" sound playing Liszt with genuine passion.





"

Finally Mozart with "Style"!

Ryan Kouroukis | Toronto, Ontario Canada | 02/22/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I love these recordings! Grumiaux plays with sparkle and finesse and Colin Davis conducts the exactly the same way!



I'm glad they re-released these on Philips 50 label...much deserved!





Breathe in the fresh air and spring warmth of these recordings! Ahhh..."