Customer Reviews

Beethoven: Violin Concerto; Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto [Hybrid SACD]

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

 

 

I love the new medium of SACD and this one certainly didn't disappoint me. I thought that very confortable sound was one of the best things about his remastering. It is so very clear that the dynamics of SACD had been used when remastering this. I often think that CDs have an edgy sound, especially from a piano, that I just couldn't shake. This release has none of that edgy sound and everything sounds so natural and great.

The performances itself are second to none. The two magnificent artists, Jascha Heifetz and Charles Munch, are great together. The Beethoven concerto is performed so much artistic finness. It is played quite fast. I am always in awe when hearing Heifetz at the apparent ease when playing an extremely difficult piece. The Mendelsohn concerto is even more remarkably played than the Beethoven. Again Heifetz is quite fast but always true to the piece. The end of first movement was especially exilerating.
If you are a fan of Jascha Heifetz you should not miss the Naxos Historical release of Beethoven's Violin Concerto with he and Toscanini. That one is also quite remarkable, but quite different.
At this low price you really couldn't go wrong if you are looking for great performances of Beethoven's or Mendelsohn's Violin Concertos. I bought it even though I had the CD version and I was definitly not disappointed.

Heifetz was perhaps the most polarizing artist of the last century. People either love him or hate him. His admirer's note his flawless technique and tonality. His detractor's say his performances sound cold. I happen to rate him (along with Milstein & Oistrakh) right at the top. If you have never heard Heifetz, this is a great place to start. If you are already a Heifetz fan, these recordings will not disappoint and the sound is also great.

Heifetz handles both the Mendelssohn and Beethoven with his extraordinary skill and grace. He is by no means cold or mechanical on this recording-- instead, he is expressive though not sappy. The Beethoven is sheer perfection--it gives me chills up my spine whenever I hear it. I have heard many versions of this concerto, but the Heifetz and Munch version is the only one that sounds exactly right. The same goes with the Mendelssohn. Once you listen to this recording, you'll wonder how you were able to even tolerate other versions of these concertos.

I have been very happy to be able to acquire these new processings of the original Living Stereo master tapes that Soundmirror, Inc., is producing from the master tapes of RCA's Living Stereo series.

To be able to hear the original performances just as they were recoded thirty to forty years ago is amazing. The DSD processing enables you to return to these important performances.

I am very impressed by the work Soundmirror is doing and I highly recommend these recordings to anyone interested in these early performances.

If you already have the Tschaikowsky-Brahms Violin Concertos by Heifetz/Reiner, don't hesitate to buy this item also. Heifetz is again wonderful, always a little on the fast side.- In the Beethoven I prefer the Kreisler cadenza in the first movement, and no cadenza at all in the third. The Mendelssohn sounds even better than the Beethoven.- Munch/Boston are excellent partners, and the sound is great

I have always been an admirer of Heifetz because of his unparalleled technique and gorgeous sound. Despite the accusation of being "cold", which had to do mostly with his unemotional platform behavior, many of his performances are heartfelt. That said, the Mendelssohn is about my least favorite Heifetz concerto recording. It is quite brisk, to say the least. And yes, it sounds kind of cold to me. The Mendelssohn is a beautiful, romantic work that works really well when the soloist gives it a bit of space here and there to sing, even in the finale. Heifetz plays it straight and fast all the way through, to the work's detriment. Heifetz's ultra quick finale is a tour de force for sure, but there are other violinists I like better. Gil Shaham is great in this concerto precisely because he gives the music a little more time to bloom, if you will.

The Beethoven is far, far better. The 2nd and 3rd movements are wonderful. The second movement is really moving, with an almost magical beauty, and the finale moves happily along at a quick, appropriate pace. The first movement is brilliantly played, and the SACD recording restores the power and heft to the sound of the tuttis, as well as offering a marvelous sound picture of the unique Heifetz tone. For all my admiration for the quality of the playing in the 1st movement, it does have a frenetic feel in places, with a quick overall tempo aggravated by some rushing in a few isolated passages. Most other violinists (Perlman, Szeryng, Oistrakh, Francescatti, Kreisler, Krebbers, Repin, etc etc) take 23 to 26 minutes for the first movement. Jascha and Charles polish it off in 20'34" flat. My opinion is that the 1st movement would be for the ages had they slowed just a bit, to say 22'. As it is, it's still magnificent, but unnervingly quick in spots.

As for the sound, this latest incarnation of the recording is superb--warm, full, brilliant, detailed and well balanced. The first CD incarnation of these performances in the 80s was kind of awful, but this one holds up fine against modern digital recordings. Actually, it sounds better than some. The Mendelssohn is a bit dry, but the Beethoven has to my ears an ideal amount of reverberation to add glow to the sound. The 1st movement cadenza in Beethoven is thrilling to hear in SACD. The man's virtuosity was staggering.

Despite my reservations about the Mendelssohn, 5 stars because of the Beethoven. The recording is worth the price for the slow movement of the Beethoven alone! Buy it.

Who am I writing this for? I don't care a hoot for sound-in-itself, because I'm interested in the music first, then the performance. So if you're sound buff, read the other reviews.
Same deal with Heifetz worship. he was a fiddler, not a composer. It is sheer nonsense to claim that he was "the greatest", or this recording "the best ever". These things cannot be quantified. To say such a thing is not helpful to a reader either; and we are supposed to be helpful when writing reviews.
There has always been a "problem" with Heifetz. Music lovers unacquainted with it, should be made aware that technical difficulties didn't exist for him. The outcome was that he tended to play faster than other violinists, and accordingly his recordings of the standard masterpieces (like Beethoven and Mendelssohn) may come to sound aloof, uninvolved. It is true that Heifetz had a tendency not to linger over gentle melodic lines. These are facts, not opinions. Everyone is in a position to discern them. The question is simply whether the listener feels comfortable with it or not. This is where these few lines wish to help.
Both these concertos exhibit Heifetz's urge to "get on with it". The sheer fluidity of Heifetz playing is indeed a marvel. But now I have to give my own opinion, based on something like 40 to 50 auditions of the recording and its principal rivals. I find that, in Beethoven's head movement, he does not bother to articulate the expressive episodes; and that he is strongly inclined to rush over scales running up and down, as if they were totally uninteresting - whereas Perlman for one finds plenty of honey to pour over those phrases. In certain moods you might find Heifetz's nonchalance, his refusal to dig into the music and find the greatness not his own in there, extremely irritating. The other two movements are much better in this respect - the last movement because the little tune actually sounds better on the fast side.
What I've said here about Beethoven applies in equal measure to Mendelssohn. This is not as well recorded as the other work: it is more dull, the orchestra sounds thicker and more muffled; and once or twice Heifetz's violin gives off a shriek. There is however, one issue that may tilt the balance in his favour for those who are interested in historical curiosities. For this recording Heifetz used the same violin (Khevenmuller Stradivari) on which Ferdinand David played the world premiere of the work.
I personally find these recordings indispensable as historical documents of one of the great musicians of the 20th century. But I have plenty of other recordings in my collection when I just to immerse myself in the music. If you have yet to buy your first recording of either work, then Heifetz is unlikely to be a first choice recommendation. You have know this music very well to appreiate what he is doing. But if you have other recordings and wonder what greets you here, I hope you'll get the gist of it from this short account.

I admit a certain disappointment with this release. Yes, the sonics are 50 years old now, but these are Living Stereo recordings. The sound seems somewhat "soft." I don't mean the volume, but the sound. It lacks vibrancy, edge and bloom. I compared it with Sony's SACD disc, with a Mendelssohn concerto performance by Stern and the Phildelphia from roughly the same period, and the Sony sounded a bit better. That surprised me. RCA's two-channel SACD layer add some spatial information the CD layer lacks, but there's nothing here that displays the dazzling sonic improvement say the Classic Records reissues showed over the old RCA Living Stereo CDs.