Customer Reviews

Barber: Adagio for Strings/Violin Concerto/Schuman: To Thee Old Cause/In Praise Of Shahn

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While it's true that this recording of Barber's Violin Concerto helped bring the work into the mainstream repertoire, several recent recordings are even better.

The first of these new recordings features Shaham accompanied by Previn and the London Symphony Orchestra. Shaham's performance is brash and VERY extrovert, bringing a sense of excitement to the music. Bell (accompanied by Zinman and the Baltimore) also plays the piece very well in his recording. Unlike Shaham, Bell's introvert performance brings out the more thoughtful and mystical qualities of the music. This approach also works well, and I actually prefer it to the Shaham. Oh, as a side note, Bell won the 1997 Gramophone Concerto Award (not the pointless Grammy, mind you) for this recording.

Finally, there is the new Hahn (accompanied by Wolff and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra) recording. Her approach is somewhere between the Shaham and the Bell. Generally, her playing is cooler and more aristocratic, which works very well in the first movement. In addition, her third movement is absolutely breathtaking. This is my favorite recording of the Barber Concerto, though others tend to prefer either the Bell or the Shaham for their more extreme interpretations.

In any case, these new recordings all surpass the old Stern recording in turns of technical prowess, lyricism, and recording quality. Buy the Stern for solely historic reasons.

This CD is a terrific opportunity to purchase Barber's famous "Adagio" and his Violin Concerto--with the duo of Bernstein and Isaac Stern, no less. But don't stop it after the Concerto: the best music is yet to come. William Schuman's startling and glorious works follow. Schuman's flair for the unconventional holds serve in "To Thee Old Cause" from 1968 and "In Praise of Shahn" from 1969. Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic handle Schuman's long lyrical lines ("Old Cause") and unconventional rhythms ("Shahn") with jaw-dropping precision and power. It is Bernstein's great tribute to a great friend, and a must-buy for any Schuman enthusiast.

Bernstein's interpretations here, especially of Barber's Adagio for Strings, are beautiful without being insipid, but I wish he'd had a better hand with the technique of his orchestra. The entrances are sloppy, and intonation in general is uneven; one has the impression that the orchestra was simply not paying much attention to staying TOGETHER. This is a frustrating recording for me: I love it, but I always get an urge to dress down the concert master when I listen to it....

This CD will most likely be of interest to those who collect historical recordings; of which the Isaac Stern performance of the Barber violin concerto will be most appealing. However, I believe the best performances are of Barber's Adagio for Strings and the lesser works of Schuman. Bernstein does a splendid job coaxing as much emotion as he can out of the New York Philharmonic's string sections in Barber's Adagio. The Barber concerto sounds okay, but I have not heard any of the more recent interpretations mentioned by other reviewers to state definitely whether this performance is vastly inferior to recent releases. Still, the sound quality of all these recordings sounds a bit dry by contemporary standards, even with the latest in digital-bit-imaging technology.

I enjoyed this cd very much. The violin concerto was played amazingly well and beautifully. However, the Barber Adagio I thought was not played well at all. I had to go back to check my cd to see if it really was the New York Philharmonic playing it. The orchestra was not always together, it sounded rushed, and sloppy. I have played the Barber Adagio, and quite frankly the small group that I played it in that was comprised of high schoolers played it much better.