Customer Reviews

Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto & Overtures

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Years ago in the pre-internet days, I used to buy classical music albums at a used record store for a couple of bucks each. It was there that I came across a Pinchas Zuckerman Mendelssohn Violin concerto album from the sixties. Even though I didn't (and still don't) know a lot about classical music, I was really impressed and played it frequently. Then I bought a CD player and got rid of all my LPs. Very stupid. Technology doesn't always make things better.

Recently, I started listening to classical music again, and found this CD. It wasn't Zuckerman, but I knew Menuhin was considered one of the greats so I bought it.

It's not terrible, I guess. There are problems though. Menuhin's violin sounds like it was recorded from a hundred yards away. His playing is sloppy in spots, and it's not nearly as crisp and emotional as Zuckerman's. It sounds like Menuhin is playing it as a technical excercise, and none too successfully. After buying this I learned that Menuhin's playing went into decline following the mid-fifties.

Find Zuckerman's recording instead.

Most older music lovers have a tender spot in their hearts for Yehudi Menuhin, the most humane of violinists, and despite his fragile technique, this is a very musical account of the Mendelssohn concerto. Efrem Krutz doesn't cnduct with the authority of Furtwangler, of course, from Menuhin's famous post-war recording, but for a stylish, modeslty non-virtuosic stereo version, this one iwll do nicely. The sonics and orchestral playing are also quite appealing. The fillers are Mendelssohn chestnuts from Previn, well enough played and performed, but the main attraction here is Menuhin at somewhere near his mature best.