This is a continuation of my old account from 6 years ago (rareviolintreasures), I started running out of things to upload that were out of print or rare and was just too tired to continue because I was working in excess of 100 hour weeks. My intention was to get the majority of recordings I had that were difficult to find, once I felt I had accomplished this goal, I decided it was time to stop.
Alot has changed in my 6 year absence as some things that were in print no longer are and vice versa, so keep in mind I no longer have access to my old account and can not modify or delete anything I put up before, it has always been my intention to not share recordings that still are in print as this would reduce support for the artist.
I prefer his interpretation of the Sonata over Nicolisi's. I normally find the Sonata dull but here, he manages to weave a story into it. Perhaps a ship, lost in a tempestous sea, trying to find its way back to harbour.
It's great to hear this remarkable violinist play music truly worthy of him! O.K., so the recording is noisy and glitchy, and the conductor and orchestra are nothing much (though they get the job done with professional efficiency), but oh, the sheer force, power, poetry and beauty of Rabin's playing!
Heifetz will always be FIRST ( I'm always left stunned, immobilized really, from his power, force and exquisite execution of this piece, but Kogan is a lovely variation.
I printed your notes. Have to ck to see if I have Rabin's recording of this. Have many of his recordings. He died way too young -sad. One of my idols as a teen. I have a little clip that I got from Israel Baker, my teacher, but it is on large reel-to-real of Heifetz chamber members recording session. My parents got rid of that machine when I left home. I should try to have reproduced on CDs.
This is the concerto Spohr printed in full in his 'Violin School' - as the culmination of the students' work in the first steps to becoming a top violinist. For those who comment that the final movement, Rondo, should be faster and more virtuosic, it is only an Allegretto with a metronome mark of quarter-note = 80, which is about what this performance is doing. Spohr disapproved of vulgar displays of virtuosity: in his concluding chapter he says "Strive only after what is noblest! disdain every kind of charlatanism. He who stoops to pander to the taste of the multitude will sink ever lower and lower" - an obvious allusion to the style, the antithesis of his own, of the unnamed Paganini.
It's always wonderful to discover a good new musician/composer, BUT... You all have NO IDEA on how this simple image for the record on the video, drove me to an absurd spiral of art research! And I end up simply discovering an artist from 19°century SPECIALIZED in paintings of monkeys playing violin and doing stuff (!), and plus that there's an entire art subgenre of it called "singerie" (!), and a russian fable/poem where a monkey violinist set out with other animals to do a Quartet! I play violin, and I just LOVE (I'm obsessed with) monkeys!🤩
Thank you SO MUCH for those works that unfortunately history don't do justice; the world is full of great artists that no one heard of; and that's absurdly tragic for me. I admire above the master classics those works of tremendous beauty, but almost unknow. Keep that work, keep the memory and art alive!
James Ehnes is new to me. His discography shows a good taste for me, Elgar, Dvorak, Bruch... . He plays pleasantly calmly and not as aggressively as some others. At Bruch you can't push, it's not a concert for self-promoters. Ehnes makes his Stradivarius sing well. Maybe I'll live to see Himari record all of Bruch's works, it would be ideal for her.
