Search - Joshua Bell, Michael Tilson Thomas, Berliner Philharmoniker :: Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto [Hybrid SACD]

3 1/2 stars for interpretation, sound and packaging

Larry VanDeSande | Mason, Michigan United States | 08/31/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The reviews here of this performance remind me of the reviews a few years back of a woman's rendition of a couple Bach cantatas. They focused on the beauty of her singing and nothing else.



As I said then, classical music collectors traditionally want more than a good performance, which in the CD era are a dime a dozen. To spend money on a full-price CD -- or, in this case, a $10-$16 CD -- buyers want not only performance but truthful sound and packaging that meets their needs.



In this recording, the interpretation is brilliant, the recording is magnificent but hardly truthful, and the packaging borders on failure. First, Bell's interpreation, captured from a January 2005 concert recording in the Berlin Philharmonie.



Bell, who is among the most precocious of today's young wunderkinds, is so different here from his recording of the Beethoven and Mendelssohn concertos that he appears to be a different person. He even looks like a different person on the CD cover and inside pages (more on that later.)



His playing eshcews the fire and brimstone violinists have portrayed in this most romantic of concertos. In its place, Bell substitutes unTchaikovskyian subtlety, lingering rhapsody, and portamento on distended themes in his near 20-minute operning Allego moderato. This not only changes the character of the score marking to Adagio, it creates a different concerto than many have ever heard.



His approach is detailed in the notes and maybe best described when Linda Kobler says: "Bell compares the concerto's strenuous non-stop soloist's playing to 'running the four minute mile.' Its (the concerto's) brilliant execution is still, however, the sine qua non of great violin playing."



Does it succeed? That depends on your perspective. I compared this with the other recordings I had at my disposal -- the recently re-minted SACD of Heifitiz, Pierre Amoyal's recording with Dutoit and Kennedy's now out of print recording with LPO. Bell is different than all those performers. Heifitz is very distincitive and virtuosic, Amoyal mixes virtuosity with some of Bell's tenderness, and Kennedy is self-absorbed and virtusoic.



Of the four recordings I found Kennedy's the most consistently involving. Bell's performance is clearly of a different cut than these -- romantic without virtuosic tendencies and clearly more gently laid out. While he emerges in the middle and final movements in more traditional style -- with a big bang at the end that gets the audience "bravo"ing -- it is his first movement that marks this recording as unique, both for its interpretation and the way it rewrites the score markings. For his part, Michael Tilson Thomas gives Bell wonderful support throughout and the Berlin Philharmonic lives up to its reputation as one of the world's best orchestras.



The recording is hybrid SACD and is magnificent, one of the most wide ranging and detailed recordings I have ever heard. Individual instruments emerge from the mass with such clear detail that...well, they remind me of the way London made FFRR and Phase 4 recordings in the 1960s. While audiophiles will be thrilled with this recording, I found it something less than that musically.



It isn't that it's a bad recording, no sir. As I said, it is magnificent. While critics today are coming to a collective belief that SACD is what CD should have been in the first place, I think this recording shows that SACD is to music what HDTV is to viewing pictures on a small or large screen: it is better than reality.



To put it even more succinctly, this recording exceeds any performance I've ever heard in a concert hall, regardless of whether I was on stage with the orchestra, in the first row, in the back row or in the balcony. It is so good it is unrealistic.



I recently read a column by a TV critic that installed HDTV in her home after years of watching conventional televisions. She said the experience was so overwhelming that she is now addicted to HDTV. She said instead of critiquing a program she was watching, she spent all her time admiring the pores in an actor's face.



This recording lets you hear every pore in Bell's instrument and most of the pores in the orchetration, as well. The recording is so wide ranging it mimics two elements from our past: the 1960s tendency to record with 20 microphones, then mix the recordings into a final product that at times spotlights certain instruments, making them larger than life; and that failed experiment of the 1970s, quadrophenia. In either case, I am sure a comparsion of a 2005 recording to these old technologies is not a great thing.



The packaging on this CD is nearly a failure. First, buyers get only a 37-minute concerto and a couple brief makeweights on a medium priced CD. The three CDs I used in comparison mated the Tchaikovsky concerto with either the Sibelius or Brahms concertos, making any of them better buys musically. The 50 minutes of music on this one is not good value regardless of the quality of the interpretations or sound.



Second, the inside packaging leaves a lot to be desired. The four page hard paper spread includes a lot of publicity photos of Bell, Emmanuel Pahud and MTT at recording sessions, doing everything possible to maintain their stature as pop stars in the classical universe. The notes basically talk about Bell and his ideas about the concerto even though this is his second recording of the Tchaikovsky.



Like that recording from a few years back about the woman's Bach cantatas, this recording seems to me marketed exclusively to the download generation. If the music is all that matters, it's a good deal. If something besides the music is held accountable, I'd say this offering is somewhere in the middle of the crowd. It is one of the better sounding recordings in an unnatural way but it hardly is the best accounting of the music or the history behind it or its composer."

One of Joshua Bell's Finest Recordings

Grady Harp | Los Angeles, CA United States | 10/06/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Joshua Bell has been capturing the hearts and applause of audiences around the world for a the past several years, striding out on stage with his handsome and elegant appearance and playing a very wide repertoire of violin concerti with involvement and musicality. In this recording of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D major all of his positive attributes are now enhanced with a lush, even tone and an intimate approach to one of the violin blockbuster pieces. It is a wholly successful venture.



Bell continues to grow as an artist and much of that growth comes in the quality of tone he now produces. It is creamy where called for and crisp and incisive when challenged. His approach to the Tchaikovsky is a passionate one, though without the overplaying that creeps into so many other violinist's readings. He is well supported by the Berlin Philharmonic under the warmly compatible leadership of Michael Tilson Thomas. This is a Tchaikovsky concerto performance to cherish.



Adding to the recording are three well-selected works by Tchaikovsky - the playful 'Danse Russe' from 'Swan Lake', 'Meditation, in D major', and 'Serenade melancolique, for violin & orchestra in B minor'. They are beautifully performed and feel like well-deserved encores to the concerto! Highly recommended. Grady Harp, October 05"

A different interpretation......

Matthew A. Schmit | Alexandria, VA | 09/25/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I was very excited to hear Joshua Bell was rerecording the Tchaikovsky and rushed out to buy a copy of this CD the day it was released. Maybe it's due to my high expectations, but after listening to it I was slightly disappointed. In the cover notes it discusses how Joshua wanted to make a more "intimate" recording. I think he succeeds on that point. The second and third movements are magnificant, and his sound is very full and played with absolute precision. In fact, I would go as far as saying the second movement is as good as I've heard in any recording of the Tchaikovsky.



My main complaint is with the 1st movement (allegro moderato). In an effort to make it more intimate he has slowed it down to the point that it really seems to drag. It's about half a minute longer than the first movement in his 1988 recording, but to be honest it seems much longer. I've always viewed the first movement as being more of an orchestral piece than a violin solo, and because the solo parts are slower, the speed of the orchestra seems ponderous and lacks life. The third movement is a full minute longer than his 1988 recording. However, I don't think it's as noticeable because the third movement is sometimes played too fast anyway, and I think slowing it down allows the audience to hear the notes better. This is not neccessary with the first movement, because it generally has a slower pace and longer notes to begin with.



You can understand how someone like Joshua Bell, who has already recorded most of the standard repertoir, may want to challenge himself and the audience by trying different interpretations of the standard violin fare. He did this with his recent recording of the Beethoven/Mendelssohn concertos, and I think we as the audience should be greatful for this (and it's probably why we rush out to buy his CD's).



All in all though, I recommend this CD. The Meditation and Dance Russe are excellent. I'll only give it 4 out of 5 stars because of my complaints about the first movement of the concerto. However, if you're new to classical music and want a good version of the Tchaikovsky concerto, start out with Joshua's 1988 recording instead."