Customer Reviews

Beethoven Violin Concerto - Kreutzer Sonata

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

 

 

Vadim Repin, now a veteran of the concert stage, deserves his shot at a big-time recording career. He's been present at the margins, overshadowed by Mullova and Vengerov among Russian exports and by more glamorous non-Russians on the order of Mutter, Hahn, and Bell, not to mention critical favorites like Zimmerman, Kremer, and Tetzlaff. Who would think that having world-class technique and fine musical instincts could make you an also-ran?

My reaction to Repin's Beethoven Concerto is colored by dislike of Muti's blunt condcuting, which fails to find depth in the all-important orchestral part. Listening beyond that, Repin's playing is clean, tasteful, and efficient -- temperamentally a bad fit with Muti. To his credit, Repin avoids the self-conscious mannerisms that spoiled starry Beethoven concertos from Nigel Kennnedy and Vengerov, but you don't feel that he has a strong point of view. For a soloist who can swagger through Tchaikovsky, he's surprisingly polite and small-scale here. If Repin feels the grandeur of Beethoven's masterpiece, it barely comes across. Phrases of enormous expressive import slide by decorously one after another, and by the time we arrive at the finale, Repin is walking on eggshells. I suppose that the violinist takes the position asserted by some writers that Beethoven's only violin concerto is more about classical grace than Romantic feeling.

DG throws in a bonus disc of the Kreutzer Sonata, and since the pianist is Martha Argerich, one assumes that sparks will fly at last. Well, not so much. Rather than being carried away by her passionate spontaneity, Repin seems to tame Argerich. He keeps his tone small and elegant, without any attempt to bring out the heroic side of this most heroic of Beethoven's violin sonatas. Part of this reticence, I think, must come from Repin's refusal to abandon a polished tone in favor of something grittier and wilder. Whatever the reason, the Kreutzer falls into the same class of tasteful performance that I can admire but not love.

This is a comment on the Beethoven Concerto only. I appear to be in the minority here. I really like Repin's interpretation. It's precisely because Beethoven's violin concerto is so different from much of his other work that I appreciate the restrained "classical" as opposed to "romantic" interpretation that Repin gives us. I hear plenty of emotion in his playing, but it never overpowers the structure, which is elegant and beautiful.

The highest compliment one can pay the Repin/Muti/VPO recording of the violin concerto is that everyone involved -- soloist, conductor/orchestra, and engineers -- is going for the same thing (emphasis on "thing," singular) and they all stick to the script, doggedly. If you want to hear a technically faultless Beethoven Violin Concerto, the sole interpretive characteristic of which is a kind of lofty Olympian reserve, this is for you. Of poetry, drama, whimsy, and any but the most basic and inevitable musical shaping, there is virtually nothing; one would only know from experience with other performances that those possibilities existed in the work. The Repin/Muti reading is "sweet" and "genial" and "graceful" from beginning to end, abundant lyricism adding up to little and pointing nowhere in particular. As implied above, the recorded sound is perfectly matched to the understated character of the performance: warm, generalized, and low-impact, even in the tuttis. This approach may be pleasing to some; my own reaction was disappointment, not only in the soloist but in the conductor, of whom I am a great admirer. This is not what I expected from him, and will do little to counter the oft-expressed opinion that Beethoven is one of his weak suits. Familiar though I am with the hallmarks of his style, I would never have accurately guessed he was involved, if listening to this blind. He conducts as though his whole career has been building to the perfect moment when he could turn into Carlo Maria Giulini.

The accompanying Kreutzer Sonata with Marta Argerich is on a different level: tense, occasionally dazzling, and the best reason to get this. Repin decided against coupling the Beethoven with another violin concerto, on the grounds that any other concerto in the repertory would be dwarfed by Beethoven's. I strongly disagree (and would cite as Exhibit A the RCA CD containing the classic Heifetz/Munch recordings of the Beethoven and Mendelssohn concerti), but in the face of this dashing Kreutzer, I am willing to allow Repin his eccentric view. This is not a "coupling" in the strictest sense, however; the works occupy separate very short CDs within one slim case. I suspect this layout was not the original plan, but some broad tempi pushed the combination a few minutes past the 80-minute mark. DG deserves credit for not trying to sell this as two full-priced discs.

Vadim Repin is one of the most talented, imaginative violinist alive. His Mozart concerti conducted by Menuhin, his Shostakovich with Nagano were powerful, refined, intelligent recordings. So why is Vadim Repin so afraid of Beethoven's concerto? The respect he certainly displays in the promotional video is all too real and perhaps, his usually steely arm just couldn't serve him as his Durandal to slay Beethoven's dragon. Perhaps Vadim would have benefited from including the Schnittke cadenza: at least he would have had an ally to make history instead of selecting a sleep walker named Muti... Repin budding ideas -they never reach maturity- are tramped by Riccardo like a drunk elephant in a glass menagery. But hey, Vadim we are told, waited to find his ideal collaborators... yeah right!

Now to the real culprits of this wreck: Deutsche Grammophon. And specifically the sound engineer and producers. The recorded sound is thin and boomy, the soloist is far, far away somewhere down a hole and very little of his direct sound -already thin because of fear- comes to us. The orchestra sound is a soup even when listening on professional studio equipment: no delineation of the strings at all, it's a noise. Of course the cadenzas are recorded without anyone in the hall -the halo of reflection is warmer without musicians and becomes matter once the editing restore the orchestra presence about 15 seconds before they even play a note back again.
The booklet tells us that Mr Rainer Maillard is the sound engineer. We are also told that he had so much time on his hands that he indulged into photography and provided some stage shots for the booklet. Well Mr Maillard, instead of playing with your zoom, you should have opened your ears and concentrated on your job! A 2007 DG CD that sounds worse than earlier medium rich DG records is the result of your complacency! This so called "tonmeister" should become a tonschuler of real masters such as Kenneth Wilkinson, James Lock or closer to us Jean Chateauret before being offered the wheel of a studio console! A sound licence he should be required to pass! Deutsche Grammophon producers should really aim for more than elevator music sound quality and hire professionals not a stage photographer who dabbles in noise recording!

CBC Rick Phillips gave 3 stars to this disc. One is this listener verdict, only for poor complacent, terrified Vadim Repin, lost in this PR machine. I have yet to listen to the Kreutzer... I felt already "kreutzified" by the concerto and surely need a break before attempting a listening...

I know in an era of MP3 downloads we are supposed to forget about sound quality and just gobble up products because they are made and presented to us. But really if these producers had heard the Ansermet Deccas recordings of the early 60s, had possessed any professional self-esteem and integrity, they would never have released CDs like this one.

Vadim Repin is so good it's scary. I'm serious. So why isn't his name a household word like Joshua Bell, Sarah Chang, Midori, Itzak Pearlman, et. al.?

Salvatori Accardo is my favorite (I think), and yet he, too, is not well known in the U.S. (I'll bet if he played professional sports...never mind.)

You WILL enjoy this CD - assuming you like classical, like Beethoven, and like a violin that sounds as though it's being played by heavenly spirits.

I haven't listened much to the first piece - I was so enthralled by the Kreutzer. One review complained about the sound: actually its pretty good - most people will be very happy with the acoustics. The playing is absolutely amazing - I'm a big fan of Argerich and she certainly gets heard in this performance. Repin was great, of course, but his violin doesn't dominate.

I'm only commenting on the Kreutzer, but that's worth the money alone! A fantastic performance.

vadim repin and claudio abbado are presenting here a wonderful new interpretation of beethoven's violin concerto. this interpetation directs the focus on the melancholic and deep tendances of the composition, what is absolutely convincing, many passages are played more slowly as usual,
wheras the interpretation of the "kreutzer"-sonata is a little bit rude,
too rude for this work which contains so many charming ideas.

I like Vadim Repin a lot, but I agree with many reviewers here, it sounds like he's scared to play the concerto and just want to be safe. The bonus CD, the Kreutzer sonata with Argerich, on the contrary, is wonderful. I'm glad at least there's that.

I have been waiting for the issue of this CD for a long time. Repin must have done alot of research of this great piece, and successfully launched. The reason why I like him is that he does not produce his recordings recklessly. He refuses commercialism in classical music business. This is quite a good comparison with several jewish premium artists such as ..... who are in the same generation with Repin. I think this recording is a fresh but not radical interpretation of Beethoven violin concerto, and must be another landmark among the violinists of the Repin's generation. I am willing to give the ultimate score to this.

We don't have to be too much particular about rating musicians' playing. It is not good that we evaluate with a prejudice in order for us to be seen very special. We, all the amazon reviewers, need to be more generous and more humble when we writing our review here. Most of the musicians here are in world top class level, including Vadim Repin and R. Mutti. I don't see any fault in this recording, and big misintrepretation of Beethoven, either. This CD includes really astonishing playing by greatest musicians in our generation. I am really willing to give it 5 stars!!! Remember that we cannot be upgraded with a intentional strictness in scoring!! Let's be more generous with consideration about their efforts & time dedicated to recording as well as their high level artistry.