Customer Reviews

Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg - Mendelssohn, Saint-Saëns, Massenet

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This CD is one of the first classical music CDs I ever bought and still one of my favorites. It was the first CD of Nadja Salerno-Sonnenburg I ever bought after seeing her profiled on 60 minutes many years ago.

I have several CDs of Itzhak Perman, and Anne-Sophie Mutter, but no violinist matches Nadja's incredible gift of making each piece her own - you know that she truely feels the music - it flows through her -it isn't just a dry technical playing of the piece.

Listen to Track #5 - Saint-Saens: Introduction and Rondo capriccioso, Op.28 - It starts out so hauntingly beautiful and gradually builds in intensity. If this music doesn't get to you -you have no soul and will never enjoy any type of classical music.

This music soars! Always lifted up with the selections and energy that this fine violinst provides. Also, enjoying Mendelssohn helps make this one of my prized cds.

Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg is one of the finest classical violinists that America has ever produced, female or otherwise. Her style of playing has the same intense lyricism and virtuosity that distinguishes all the great violinists and inspires others to strive for that same kind of excellence.

A perfect example of Salerno-Sonnenberg's virtuosity can be found on this 1988 EMI recording that she made with conductor Gerard Schwarz and the New York Chamber Symphony. Her ability to navigate through the tricky world that is Mendelssohn's celebrated E Minor Violin Concerto, particularly in its vivacious finale, is definitely something to behold. Like the violin concertos of Beethoven, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky, the Mendelssohn is a work that all concert violinists know they must utilize at some point, and Salerno-Sonnenberg does not hold anything back here. Neither do Schwarz and his NYCS players.

But the violin and orchestral virtuosity doesn't stop there, as Salerno-Sonnenberg, Schwarz, and the NYCS take up two shorter works by Saint-Saens--the Havanaise, and the Introduction And Rondo Capriccioso--and the much-loved "Meditation" from Jules Massenet's 1894 opera "Thais." This last work gives Salerno-Sonnenberg to display a quiet but obvious passion in her playing.

Helped out by the combination of a fine orchestra and a great conductor, Salerno-Sonnenberg proves herself here to be one of the great violinists of our time. This is a recording that cannot be recommended highly enough.

This is a great CD. The violin is so full of feeling. The Mendedlssohn is a beautiful piece that is wonderful again and again. This is a good CD for your collection You won't get tired of it.

Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg is sheer genius! She speaks to the audience with her playing, with her violin. It is no longer a piece of wood but a bit of heaven that stirs the listen's soul and what better way to do so than with the great music of Mendelssohn, Saint-Saens and Massenet. I have just about all Nadja's cds and have just added this to my collection - it is like adding another treasure!

This recording is one of the best I ahve ever heard of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. Sonnenberg's performance is breathtaking, fiery and musically great

I was moved to search for a recording of the Mendelssohn Concerto by Ms. Salerno-Sonnenberg after having heard (and seen) her perform it with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra last year. That live performance was absolutely transporting - even mesmerizing - and this recording does not disappoint. I am not knowledgeable regarding violin technique, and thus I cannot analyze this recording from that standpoint, but I do know what pleases my ear and what lifts my heart. The pure beauty of this composition combined with Ms. Salerno-Sonnenberg's passionate interpretation stirs me anew each time I listen to it. Highly recommended.

Sonnenberg's violin sometimes sounds distant on this recording. It probably could have used closer miking. I had trouble hearing the violin at times and if I raise the volume the orchestra sounds too loud.

Having won a mass audience for herself thanks to low-cut dresses, stage antics, and coverage on 60 Minutes, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg had a chance to expose young listeners to serious musicmaking. Instead, she made it a one-woman show, and the results don't attract serious attention. She's at her worst here in the slow movement of the Mendelssohn concerto, dripping with swoops and swoons. Elsewhere, though, she reins things in. At bottom, when she isn't ladling on the syrup, NSS is a cautious violinist--she hasn't got the technique for fireworks--and in the outer movements of the concerto she shows some respect for the music.

Her fans will love her hyper-romantic way with the Havanaise and Meditation by Saint-Saens, two piecees that can't be hurt by a little extra shmaltz. The Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso is a more substantial piece, however, and she's pulls it to pieces mercilessly. Gerard Schwarz, like every conductor NSS works with, passively stands aorund and lets her hog the spotlight. It's what her fans want, and clearly so does she.