Customer Reviews

Violin Concertos

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I purchased this disk for 86 cents. I was in the process of attempting to build a small collection of performances of Beethoven's acclaimed Violin Concertos, and knew that, for the price, it wouldn't much matter if the performance and recording weren't top notch. It would be a nice, inexpensive addition to the collection, simply a different way to hear the pieces and compare to other performances.

It might come as a surprise, but after collecting more than ten different recordings of the Violin Concerto and the Romances 1 and 2 (which are inevitably added to the Violin Concerto recordings) over the years, this disk by Miklos Szenthelyi and the Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra are without doubt my very favorite to date. That's quite a thing to say when I reflect that some of the disks in this collection are by the world's best performers and recorded by the world's best recording labels. But I've played these pieces over and over again during the course of the past few years, and I keep coming back to Szenthelyi's performance over and over again. I find his performance hauntingly beautiful and incredibly insightful, a true "Beethoven" performance, meticulously performed with exceptional precision and tremendous emotional drama.

The Hungarian State Symphony does an excellent job of bringing out the best of these pieces, and the recording balance between the orchestra and the soloist is right on target. I can't argue that the recording quality itself is absolutely best of class, but quite frankly, I've never really noticed any problems with the recording, either.

This recording is an easy recommend to any Beethoven enthusiast, and if you are someone who has never investigated these most "Beethoven" of Beethoven compositions, I encourage you to try this particular recording out. This is simply a superb performance.

Miklos Szenthelyi is a fine violinist. I have a CD of solo works by him that I'm very happy with. Unfortunately, his Beethoven is a lesser achievement. The concerto moves along at sensible tempos and is pretty well recorded. Unfortunately, nothing much happens. Szenthelyi has a good grasp of the technical problems of the work, but he plays with very little passion. In fact, his total approach may best be described as diffident. The Romances start off in a more promising manner, but inevitably succumb to the same sort of tiredness and lack of inspiration. As for the Minuet, it does not sound as if it is by these performers. I strongly suspect Laserlight of including an uncredited performance by the Budapest Strings. If you are looking for a cheap recording of the Beethoven Concerto in good digital sound, there is an excellent version by Takako Nishizaki on Naxos.