Customer Reviews

Midori ~ Sibelius - Violin Concerto · Bruch - Scottish Fantasy / Israel PO · Mehta

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

If you've only listened to Heifetz's crude interpretation of Sibelius's tempestuous and capricious concerto in the past, you might be incredulous after listening to this CD. "What? This is the Sibelius Concerto? It's a far cry from the one in my memory." After listening to it twice, however, tears should prick your eyes--the result of two gusts of contrasting emotions in one stroke: anguish over all the beauty, passion and subtlety you've missed in the past from this fabulous concerto, and jubilation at your new discovery of this supreme recording and the privilege to relish every bar of the music.

What renders Midori's performance of this formidable piece peerless? First, I know of few other violinists who can toss off the inhuman exigencies--strenuously long passages of octaves and tenths, swift and continuous harmonics, successions of multiple stoppings, and other fingerboard acrobatics--of this piece with nearly diamond-sharp perfection, especially in an unedited live performance. Parts One and Eight of the third movement are particularly of breathtaking accuracy. Incidentally, Sarah Chang and Cho-Liang Lin rival her in this aspect.

But this is not merely a virtuoso showpiece. Midori's infinitely expressive, touching, provocative, and passionate tone, diversified by its kaleidoscopic palette of tonal colors, bestows spellbinding ardour, beauty, charm, sensuality, and warmth to the concerto. Yet her playing is also cogent, commanding, robust, and vigorous when the music demands so.

All the virtues above alone do not make up a musician--only a magician. Yet Midori's musicality and profundity are phenomenal. Her rendition is filled to the brim with thoughtful nuances and subtle phrasing, manifesting her rare insight into this complex music, and making one mouth agape at the fact that she was still 21 at the time of this recording. For example, her interpretation of the cadenza shortly after the commence of the first movement is the most artful, inspiring and satisfying one I've ever heard among more than ten versions, for she did not rush through it indifferently like Heifetz, but played it with masterly uses of rubato, marcato, crescendos and diminuendos, giving the music myriads of shades and strata. Another good example is Part Ten of the third movement, long passagework which may turn tedious and monotonous in inferior hands and minds, but becomes a diverse musical soundscape under the bow of Midori.

Midori audaciously takes the challenge of Bruch's Scottish Fantasy, a work considered by many--including Zukerman--to "belong to" Heifetz. Heifetz's awesome performance of the work has been my favorite for years, a superbly recorded rendition I used to deem matchless stylistically and artistically, and perhaps tonally.

How would Midori compare with Heifetz in this work? This time she did not at first seem to gain the upper hand, partly due to the second-rate recording condition in Tel Aviv, which rendered the overall timbre slightly dark and opaque. But afterwards I realized that Midori did not try at all to imitate Heifetz; rather, her approach to the music was at the other end of the artistic spectrum, as opposed to Heifetz.

Her playing is intensely warm and ardent in the slow movements, and each note is caressed by her characteristic feminine tenderness. Yet, oddly, the third movement shows a dearth of nuances, which were so prevalent in the Sibelius Concerto. She did not employ as much rubato, accents and colorful dynamics--the elements that made Heifetz's superior--as one would have expected.

In the fast movements, her rendition is perky and buoyant in several passages, and her interpretation might surpass Heifetz in some places--e.g. the use of tenuto [holding a note sometimes longer than its original value] in the fourth movement. In the second movement, however, she inconceivably failed to play the double-stops in part B in perfect harmony.

Nonetheless, her overall rendition of this work is still of sterling caliber, and in the final part of the last movement, the sorely missed nuances eventually appear in profusion. To my taste, however, Heifetz's supreme recording is still unequalled.

Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic are competent, if not outstanding, yet the aforementioned engineering is not quite balanced. In the second movement of the Sibelius concerto, for example, Midori's glorious playing is somewhat overshadowed by the orchestra. And for every track, you'll need to crank up your CD player. It is lamentable that such transcendental feats were not well recorded.

Sibelius' violin concerto is the most beautiful concerto to me. I have listened to a lot of recordings of this concerto, and this live recording was such a shock. This girl has no fear. She plays forward with great force and speed, making the music so clear with eye-popping bowing. With Midori, music never gets dull, but also nothing is taken for granted. She is technically complete, and her perfectly balanced tone between speed and density reminds me of Heifetz, but she does not hurry to kill the detail. Her music is fully formed with perfectly controlled timing. She knows the importance of blank and silence so well, and clearly differentiates her music from Heifetz and all other violinists. Midori is truely one of the greatest violinists today. Mehta's support is really clear, direct and fully balanced. Mehta and Midori are in a perfect pitch. I should say, this is very modern performance of Sibelius.

Bruch's Scottish Fantasy is also such a treat. This makes a nice coupling for me since I love Scottish Fantasy much better than his 2 violin concertos. Midori is perfectly controlled as always, but also I was amazed by how positive the music sounds with Midori. She creates such a clear statement. It is so refreshing to hear something clear and direct, which you can rarely hear today.

Midori's live performance of Sibelius is unbelievable. It shows delicate phrasing, great dynamics and flawless technique. She starts the first movement with thin line... sharp, releatively straight-forward but very sensitive. It sounds like a bird flying in the winter sky, it is so imaginative, but not too overly done. (I find most of performers do too much of nuancing, coloring goin on at the beginning of the first movement.) Her expression is great throughout. Emotionally full bodied, yet it is so sharp that you don't get distracted. Midori is always technicaly flawless and I can say this is the best recording of the Sibelius in live. Zubin Mehta is such a great accompanist here. He is folowing Midori's expression every seconds and let her breathe without getting dull. The little delay of the orchestra in the climax of the 2nd movement is abslutely gorgeous.

One thing is, some of the detail is lost because of the concert hall where recorded. But, hey, think about it, I still listen to Heifetz or Oistrakh's recordings. This is still a better condition than their old recordings. By the way, if you wanna listen to some of great Sibelius, I recommend those guys (Heifetz and Oistrakh) also.

Scottish Fantasy here is also beautiful and enjoyable. Here too, Midori is technically superb and I can't say more to praise her performance. Her live performance is always a treat.

Midori's poise and delivery are technically perfect, a talent that is often under-rated despite this artist's complete devotion to craft. She fills each line with understated passion that may be easy to miss if this disk is used as background music. It deserved full attention and rewards the listener with technical and artistic excellence.

The Sibelius VC has got to be the perfect Concerto. It has supreme depth, emotion, eerieness, brilliance, melody - everything !. Contrast it to the Tchaikovsky which is very melodic and pretty but it lacks depth.

Back to Midori, she plays the Sibelius as beautifully as it can be played..she must possess artistic subtlety and nuance to the 100th degree, unbelievable..I've listened to all of the great soloists play this piece but Midori gets more out of it..And the adagio ? it can't be played with any more emotion, depth, and understanding than by the young Midori..I've heard Stern play it and it just can't be the same adagio..Midori seems to have captured the essence Sibelius intended - strange at times but also extremely beautiful.

What else can I say about Midori ? There can't be too many other
perfect violinists (Heifetz is one for sure) but none surpass Midori technically and artistically.

She's got to be one of the top 2 or 3 of all time..

I saw Midori live at the Philadelphia Orchestra about a month ago perform Sibelius' violin concerto. I think i held my breath the whole piece. She is unbelievable. This recording of Sibelius is about the 5th that I've heard and Midori's is without a doubt the best. The peaks of the piece sound like silk and send shivers down my spine. If you like the Sibelius VC, this is the one to have. Bruch's is nice too...

The highlight of this album is Bruch's Scottish Fantasy, which has some violin passages so achingly beautiful, it's almost enough to bring tears to your eyes. Midori's performance is stunning.

I believe that I have all recordings of this extraordinary piece of music. The best of course is Christian Ferras` and this one has to be the worst. It seems that Mehta and Midori figure that exaggerating the slowness of the slow movement will make it more powerful, more thoughtfull. It does the opposite: it`s boring and shows no emotion, no sentiment.

Sibelius's violin concerto is the single piece that started my interest in classical music. I admit I may not have a seasoned ear, but I know for certain that I should have paid more attention to the lesser rated reviews. I found many of the notes to be glazed over and muted and didn't have the emotion I would expect. I have not taken the time to listen to the full disc as I was pretty disappointed with what I had initially heard. I cannot believe that people are comparing it to Heifetz.

The recording quality is excellent though.

after listening to this cd at a friend's house I have finalized my opinion on Midori being a over-hyped,
non-emotional and mechanical violinst; back when she was 13 wearing sailor dresses, she was impressive for her age... unfortunately,
since then, neither her palying ability nor her wardrobe have improved.