Customer Reviews

Lost Feuermann: Japanese Recordings 1934 & 1936

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Well, OK I don't have everything by Feuermann, either, but I took a chance on this disc. Oddly, the earlier items are in much better sound. Sadly, if this artist had lived a normal life span we would have the best 'cello recordings of much of the repertoire possible. As it is, we have to settle for what we can get. There are probably more important Feuermann discs that you should get first, but this one may not be available forever. It is more of what you expect from this great performer, but miniatures.

The first part of the transfer of this CD is considerably worse than what we can get elsewhere. The transfer of the last part, the European recordings, is slightly poorer than what we can get say from Pearl.

The only exceptions are the Japanese songs in the middle: they are the jewels of this record. But they consist of at most 1/5 of the total length.

The length of time is perhaps not a very good yardsick for music or indeed for any art. All the more so when in Feuermann we have what Toscanini hailed as "the greatest cellist" and what Casals called the "greatest artist of the century". True in the full sense of their word. Furthermore, there seems nowhere we can get these wonderful Japanese songs.

But on the other end of the balance, the general public particularly those who would prefer good sound to good music, might well be disappointed especially by the first half of the record where the recording left so much to be desired.