Customer Reviews

Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto (First Release) / Serenade for Strings (Bernstein Royal Edition No. 95)

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

 

 

Bernstein's deeply felt account of Serenade for Strings is well worth listening. He adopts more flexible and slower tempo in the first movement adding weight to the gorgeous opening theme. Sheer vitality and intensity of the playing by NYP presents the music with unusual grandeur and uninhibited passion.

Stern plays the concerto brilliantly, but he is not my favourite violinist for his gritty and squeaky tone. Was his violin suffering from asthma? Orchestra part is superb and the most passionate version I ever listened to. If you don't mind Stern's style of playing, this is also outstanding performance.

the unmissable performance here is Bernstein's passionate reading of the Serenade for Strings. This work is too gorgeous for its own good, and most conductors play it as all icing and no cake. Bernstein digs in with a passion that makes you sit up. He thinks this is real music, which of course it is, not a sugary cliche. By taking measured tempos and digging into every phrase, he finds the melancholy intensity beneath the flowery song. The finale is caressed with care and tenderness, only to break out into the high spirits of the rollicking fugato section in the middle. I doubt that I will ever hear such a performance again; it makes the classic Karajan with the Berlin Phil. sound like a once oer lightly.

The main work on this CD is the Violin Concerto, a piece I have barely a flicker of interest in. Heifetz and Reiner left us a blindingly brilliant recording on RCA, and it has satisfied my (rare) hunger for the Tchaikovsky concerto ever since. Stern certainly belongs among the ranks of virtuosos who can deliver the music as a showpiece, and why not? His tone was fatter and more resinous than the glossy perfection that young prodigies aim for now--just compare Stern's warm earthiness to the chilly perfection of Joshua Bell (also on Sony). He plaays the luscious, longing Andante with convincing heart, and he's not too heavy-handed with the finale. Stern and Bernstein make a good pairing, as always, and their matched spirits raises this performance a couple of nothces higher than other A-list readings.

I am sorry the other reviewer did not like this recording. I have loved it for years. I know every note in it. Isaac was always my favorite. I wore out a tape of this concerto. What a joy to know I'll soon have this CD.

I found the accompaniment by Bernstein to be sensitive yet full blooded. However, Stern sounds screechy. It seems that he struggles over several passages, and his tone is just unfortunate. Perhaps the engineering is to blame, or the recording venue. I love Bernstein, but avoid this one. Go for Perlman and Ormandy on EMI, or Vengerov and Abbado on Teldec for the concerto. On the other hand, the Serenade for Strings is outstanding, and almost worth buying the album for anyway.