Customer Reviews

Kreisler: Russian and Slavonic Miniatures

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Fritz Kreisler was well known in his day both as a composer and an arranger. This disc contains some of Kreisler's arrangements of music by Tchaikovksy, Dvorak, and Rimsky-Korsakov for violin and piano. Kreisler had the ability to capture the magic of these works and make them useful for his concert purposes as well. While the gifted playing of young violinist Nicolas Koeckert (he was twenty four at the time of the recording) may not be on the same level as Kreisler, at least judging from recordings available of Kreisler himself, we do get a glimpse of Kreisler's appreciation for the music of these great composers as well as his ability to please an audience. Pianist Milana Chernyavska accompanies Koeckert and the two perform well together.

This is one of those relaxing discs that will be perfect for listening to while at work, relaxing after a long day, or putting on in the car so that obnoxious drivers and traffic jams will not get the best of us. It will also transport the listener back to a time of composer/arrangers who were also great performers, something we do not see in classical music all that often.

Nicolas Koeckert is a good violinist. He plays with a rather full, if not very ripe tone. His playing suggests Kreisler less than Mischa Elman, which is not a total loss since Elman was an estimable interpreter of Kreisler's music. This program is an interesting way to listen to Kreisler's transcriptions, since it focuses on one genre rather than on an assortment of Kreisler's works. Koeckert plays everything here with fine style and a good technique, and his accompanist is very good. The highlights for me were Dvorak's Slavonic Dances, which work very well on solo violin. The low points were the excerpts from Scheherezade, which pale somewhat without the oriental coloring of the orchestra. The sound engineering is fine, and I have no hesitation in recommending this disc to those who want to investigate a significant portion of Kreisler's output. I keep wishing that Sony would reissue Pinchas Zukerman's early LP of Kreisler's music, but that is probably a lost cause.