Customer Reviews

Masters of the Bow

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I love the violin and this collection is one of my favorites. A great choice for someone like me who doesn't know enough about music and never knows what to buy. It has introduced me to some artists and pieces that I knew nothing about and will help me know what to look for in violin music in the future. This is my favorite but I would also recommend The Cello and Voice CDs in the "Masters of" series. I can't wait for more in this series.

This is among the best small collections of violin music available, as attested by the previous reviewers who are all at or near the "entry level" for this type of music. As a musician with many decades of listening experience, I don't ordinarily pay much attention to such compilations, since they usually just consist of "bleeding chunks"--a movement from this concerto, a movement from that sonata--with no evident thought or guiding intelligence, as if someone had just done a giant iPod shuffle. But as these avid entry level reviewers show, this type of collection can be highly useful to listeners at their level, as a way to get into unfamiliar musical territory and to help to choose artists they want to hear more of. I can also see great value in giving this compilation to violin students, so that they can hear a selection of masters to emulate. Even violin experts may enjoy a chance to hear a wide range of top-level players within a short time span of about 160 minutes (these are two full CDs).

A key merit of this compilation is that some thought has gone into the order and selection of works. One may immediately notice that we get only one short Beethoven and Brahms work each, and no Mozart, but again I think this is preferable to "bleeding chunks." Disc One begins with five immediately appealing concert works with orchestra. True, two of them are isolated concerto movements, but the Wieniawski "Romance" and the Paganini "La Campanella" function better as stand-alone concert pieces than, say, isolated movements from the concertos Beethoven and Brahms. The sure-fire appeal of this opening set should catch the interest of new and inexperienced listeners. Then Disc One continues with a loose historical survey, including 18th century Baroque works of the main schools--German (Bach), Italian (Vivaldi, Tartini) and French (Leclair). The Bach is, disappointingly, a fragment of three movements taken from his solo "Partita" No. 3, but we get to hear two different violinist (Milstein and Kremer). The charming minuet by Beethoven is the only work by that master composer in the collection, but once again better this than isolated and out of context concerto or sonata movements. The equally charming Mendelssohn takes us into the Romantic era. Disc One concludes with three of the 24 Paganini Caprices, a summit for virtuoso violinists, played by three different violinists (9-Mintz, 17-Ricci, 24-Accardo)--an interesting opportunity for comparison.

Disc Two starts with what I consider the worst mistake in this set, the "Canzonetta" from the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, which should lead into the final movement without pause, and here necessitates a grating fadeout. Though played superbly by the legendary Milstein, one wishes that some better choice had been made. Thereafter, Disc Two continues with a set of recital encore pieces mostly with piano accompaniment--and a good selection it is, including the wonderful Kreisler pair, "Liebesfreud" and "Liebesleid." The collection includes a number of Kreisler arrangements, thus covering another key aspect of the violin encore literature. The compilation ends well into the twentieth century with Bartok's "Six Romanian Folk Dances," played with total idiomatic conviction by Polish great Szeryng.

The selection of violinists is necessarily limited by the artists available to the record company. In this case, after consolidations over the years, we have artists drawn from the catalogs of Deutsche Grammophone (DG), Decca, and Philips. While these three provide a formidable roster, it means that only Milstein among the mid-twentieth century "Big Four" is included, and we don't get Heifetz (RCA-BMG), Oistrakh (EMI), or Stern (CBS-Sony). In addition to Szeryng, we get several other fine artists of that same era in the next tier (but definitely not "second rate") of violinists: Ricci (a stunning "Zigeunerweisen"), Grumiaux (lovely Beethoven and Dvorak), and Ferras (equally lovely Mendelssohn and Schubert). From the next generation, we get the formidable Perlman, the Paganini wizard Accardo, Mintz, Kremer, and Zukerman--though Zukerman is shortchanged with only a short "Presto" from Vivaldi's "Four Seasons." Two enchanting pieces played by Chung (Elgar and Kreisler) make us wish she was more active, as she seems to have mostly disappeared in recent years. In the current generation of twenty-first century violinists, Shaham is over-represented here with three selections that take up nearly thirty minutes out of the 2 CDs. While Shaham plays splendidly, I wish the Tartini "Devil's Trill" had been omitted and we could have been given the complete Bach "Partita" No. 3 with Grumiaux, Ricci, and Perlman playing the remaining movements. That would have been a truly interesting comparison. The justly popular Bell displays his clean, lean style with Massenet and Brahms. Generally, with a few exceptions, each artist gets two selections. Another exception is Mutter with only one, but the one she gets is the ravishing "Berceuse" by Faure with orchestra.

I have written at length in hopes that many more of those "entry level" and student listeners will want to get this compilation and so they can have a better idea of what to expect. I would add that I hope we see more of this DG "Masters of the..." series of compilations. I have the "Masters of the Oboe," and it is likewise an excellent compilation. While, in addition to voice collections, DG has also issued compilations in this series for Piano, Cello, Trumpet, and Guitar, I hope that we can also get at least "Masters of the Flute, Clarinet, and Horn" from this source, and hopefully even Bassoon, Trombone, and Percussion.

I love classical music but I dont own very much of it, so I thought I would start my collection with Masters of the Bow. What a beautiful selection it was. I just love the sound of a Violin, Joshua Bell is my favorite,I would love to hear more from him. This collection really helps you get to know the masters. Lovely Lovely!

Absolute joy to listen to at any time - even to unwind with - without it beeing a strain on the hearing.