Search - Brahms, Szeryng, Dorati :: Violin Concerto

My favorite Khachaturian recording

Scott68 | Columbus, Ohio United States | 04/30/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Khachaturian wrote a violin concerto filled with the most intricate polyrythms not unlike the Lalo, Tchaikovsky, and Miakovsky concertos. It all started with Lalo's famous Symphonie Espagnole written for virtuoso violinist composer Pablo Sarasate who was Spanish so naturally the piece was intended to include Spanish-like rythms. When Tchaikovsky heard the Lalo he began writing his own violin concerto. I believe Khachaturian's conerto here was greatly influenced by the Tchaikovsky. When you have so many rythms going by like that, it takes a great deal of bow control to really make the phrases musical and natural.Of course the Khachaturian was written for the phenominal talent of David Oistrakh (who recorded it with the composer conducting himself) but the Oistrakh recordings have very poor sound quality. The phenominal Leonid Kogan recorded my second favorite performance of the Khachaturian but I like this one more because of a better sound quality, a more inspired delivery of performance, and a tad bit more color with respect to phrasing. The tone of Mr Szeryng's DelGesu here is dark and warm, his playing is always so smooth and natural and he has a phenominal sense of timing, it is this smoothness that always amazes me: how natural sounding his transitions are and the way he interatcs with the orchestra is a rare talent. It is easy to understand why he is in my top three all time favorite soloists.As for the Brahms recording presented here, this is my third favorite recording (tied with Kogan). I found the Oistrakh and Hahn recordings to have a little bit more expression and color but this recording of the Brahms it is soaring and unique in a way only Szeryng can deliver. Other recordings of the Brahms I enjoy a little bit less include Heifetz, Milstein, Vengerov and Neveu.The sad ting about this CD is that it is a rare and out of print, this is one that needs to be reissued without a doubt. There are several recordings by Mr Szeryng that are difficult to find including his rediculous performance of the Lalo, Paganini 1, Wieniawski 2, Szymanowski 2, and Sibelius Concertos to name a few. I really wish someone out there will consider releasing these and other recordings of Mr Szeryng. I just recieved The Art of Henryk Szeryng DVD and it is great but too short, if only there were more videos of him I would be so happy. I have his Tchaikovsky video from Kultur also but that was recorded well after he was in his prime.I give this CD 5 stars all the way!"

Ditto the raves

Mark McCue | Denver, CO USA | 03/03/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"These famous presentations are some of the best to re-emerge on Living Presence and they sound as close to the superb original vinyl as is possible.I love the gutsy strings of the LSO that match the soloist to a T. As for the conductor, no one, soloist, recording company, audience, could ask for more, because it's impossible to find such a combination of style, insight, and care for the soloist.Szyering and Dorati start the Brahms awfully slow, but a few minutes into it, you realize that they view the work in the same vein as the piano concerti which tower rather than flow laterally.These historic recordings don't sound historic...on high-end equipment they sound like they were recorded yesterday."