Brahms: Violin Concerto; Mozart: Sinfonia

Brahms: Violin Concerto; Mozart: Sinfonia

Brahms: Violin Concerto; Mozart: Sinfonia

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CD Details

Composer: Johannes Brahms
Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Conductor: Otto Klemperer
Conductor: David Oistrakh
Orchestra: French Radio Orchestra
Orchestra: Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2002-08-13
Music Label: EMI Classics
Soundtracks:

I: Allegro Non Troppo
II: Adagio
III: Allegro Giocoso, Ma Non Troppo Vivace
I: Allegro Maestoso
II: Andante
III: Presto

Music reviews of Brahms: Violin Concerto; Mozart: Sinfonia

Music Review: For this price, by it! Heck, for any price, buy it!
Rating: 5 Stars

Yep, masterpiece sums this one up. So does "no brainer": two of the greatest compositions in the literature, played by two of the greatest fiddlists (did I just make a word up?) in history, on one cheap CD. The sound is good, though overly-reverberant and a bit fuzzy in the Brahms (some of you may not notice; me, I like my sound dryer than this), the soloists are stupendous, and, as the Amazon review notes, this is one of the deepest and most emotional Adagios in the Brahms ever. I'm often befuddled by soloists and conductors who play the climax of this movement, the final return of the main singing theme (where the strings begin a pizzicato accompaniment), so glibly: often they just skate over it, as though they're afraid of the emotion or they think it's too schmaltzy for a major masterpiece. Well, in the right hands, it's not schmaltzy; it is, however, deeply *romantic,* and Brahms was, after all, the king of the High Romantics. Listening to this stately, rich performance by David O, you realize why many colleagues (Sviatoslav Richter for one) considered him the greatest violinist of the 20th century. Hard to argue, with playing like this as your evidence.

The Sinfonia Concertante K. 364 is one of my favorite pieces of music, period. It is unique in Mozart's output. With its depth and elegance, structural surety and technical perfection, you'd think it was a "mature" work (if you can call works of anyone who died at 35 "mature"), but no, he wrote this when he was in his early 20s and still in Salzburg living with pops. This is very fine, with son Igor Oistrakh playing violin and daddy handling viola chores and conducting, but it's not quite my first choice: that honor would go to Stern and Zukerman with Barenboim on Sony. Before you write that one off because of Barenboim, I should hasten to add that he stays out of the way and doesn't muck things up too much, conducting with a little too much thickness in spots but otherwise okay. And Stern and Zukerman *own own own* this work. Their interplay is incredible and they are so tight you'd think they are joined at the hip, and their tone is beautiful and burnished. That's not to say that this is a bad recording by any means, and I'm glad I have it, but the listener who is as passionate about K. 364 as I am should also own the Stern/Zukerman collaboration, and it is available on CD, so rejoice.

The booklet inside is quite amusing and bizarre in its layout and artwork--open it up and you'll see what I mean: paintings are cropped in non-sensical ways. Underneath the plastic that holds the CD in place is reproduced a painting called The Flower Seller by William Powell Frith. It has no relationship with either work. I think record companies just randomly pick old-fashioned artwork for their CDs, whether it makes any sense or not. No wonder few people today besides Klaus Heymann know how to run a classical label.

But who cares about artwork? You want to look at paintings, go to a museum. You want two German masterpieces played brilliantly and at a great price, buy this CD. As I said, a no-brainer. Just like the people who brought it to you.

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