Reference Recordings: Beethoven's Violin Concerto 

Three or four years ago Perlman came and played the Beethoven in Provo, Utah at BYU with the BYU Philharmonic. He held master classes all day then played the Beethoven at night with the young musicians. He was full of humor as he drove his electric scooter up on to a purpose-built ramp...but the concerto itself was all serious and one of the great memories of my 65 years of concert-going. But perhaps more impressive than his artistry was his humanity...he's just a good guy. I have had this reference recording since it came out and agree wholeheartedly. PS: Dave your Reference series is extremely valuable because the consensus, where it exists, may be more valuable to the collector than any individual's point of view, so thank you for this series.

This was a digital recording, not an analog recording. The original 1981 LP release had a quite prominent tag identifying it as digital. EMI's engineering was marvelous and quite natural.

We know, thanks to you, that the Reference Recording is not always the best. Perlman will never eclipse the recordings by Menuhin, Oistrakh, or Grumiaux in my affections, but it's hard to deny that your choice is THE RR.

This was the recording that taught me the work. It really was the recording everyone talked about. It's interesting to hear how that came about in this video. Thanks.

Funny you say nobody cared about the one with Barenboim. That's the first Beethoven Violin Concerto I heard, at my music professor's recommendation, and I instantly fell in love with it. It's been my go-to recording ever since, though I've also heard Hilary Hahn play it very well.

I was the Classical Marketing Manager of EMI in Brazil when they released a big box of Perlman recording around 1995. I always thought it is too romantic, in a mellow way, for my taste. Of course an opinion I kept for myself that time. Oistrakh and Milstein lead the field for me, curiously both also EMI recordings, and not available in Brasil. Recently I began to love the Hilary Hahn/Zinman's one - which has almost the same times of the Perlman/Giulini.

Couldn't agree more. The Perlman recording truly is special. There is an amazing live performance on ytube that displays his uncanny feel for the Beethoven concerto.

Absolutely see why it's the reference. I had the idea initially, it might have been the Menuhin/Furtwängler EMI.

Thanks. Fabulous story. That's why I love this series of yours so much.

Thank you, sir, for introducing me to this recording. There's a sense of warmth and spontaneity that makes this performance feel alive and engaging, even after repeated listening. A reference recording, indeed.

A film was made along with the Giulini-Perlman recording, and it soon after appeared on an early laserdiscs, which I still own and cherish above all others.

This one is a digital recording. Surprisingly good sound, too, given how early in the technology it is. This also answers my earlier question about whether there's any references after the 1970s.

I’ll have to listen to it again. It’s been decades since I last heard it. I faintly remember that I found it too reverential and restrained. Despite its sublime character, this concerto demands that the artist also put in his or her own voice, vision, and personality into the work. My reference recording is Heifetz/Munch. But I’ve been blown away by a video I saw recently of Batiashvili/Mehta. Thank you, David! 🙏🏻🎻

Aptly chosen, Dave, and I really appreciated your spending so much time on Giulini's heavenly accompaniment. Totally unrelated but didn't know where else to put it: "Ripe for Reissue" are Mogens Woldike's recordings of the last six Haydn symphonies with the Vienna State Opera Orchestra on Vanguard. So glad i already own them. Hope you'll give them a mention.

I was a big Perlman fan after seeing him perform a few times and this was the first recording of the Beethoven VC I ever purchased. I did not expect this! Thank you for the great explanation. I look forward to these every day.

The work entered our home with these interprets through its filmed version. I remember recording the sound with my radio cassette when a much awaited TV program broadcasted it. It immediately conquered my mum's heart and made me revere Giulini and Perlman.

I have this off his Great Romantic Concertos album. It's a great older 3 CD set from EMI that includes his Brahms w/Guiulini CSO, Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, Bruch and Paganini 1. I also have the album with Daniel Barenboim and Berlin Phil that includes the 2 violin romances. Itzhak Perlman is the only violinist I will listen to for this concerto.

Giulini and Perlman are a fine partnership (as with the Brahms!). Here are a few takes on that work that inspired my journey in music and maybe will inspire yours: Grumiaux/Cluytens, Zehetmair/Bruggen, Kogan/Silverstri, there's Kremer''s Schnittke cadenza, I just stumbled upon Pekka's idiosyncratic take on youtube (why not?), and hopefully, one day, Amandine Beyer will record it!

One I have owned for many years. Perlman was the greatest violinist of his era, IMO. No one was better than Heifetz. And on my personal list he’s behind Milstein as well. But I’ve seen him in concert and he is wonderful.

Thanks!

Yes! my reference recording too and I love it!

Dr. Dave mentioned Franz Clement, the soloist at the work's premiere. That leads to the thought that it would be interesting to hear / read reactions to Rachel Barton Pine's recording of both the Beethoven and Clement concertos (another one of her intelligently-conceived recording projects pairs the Brahms Concerto with the Concerto in the Hungarian Style by Joseph Joachim, dedicatee of the Brahms (and "reviver" of the Beethoven, which had fallwn into eclipse).

I do agree with what you said: I knew it was something specially, so I collected as many LPs as I wanted some years ago.

A stellar choice.

I feared it was going to be another version than this. Happy days - it's this one! The only advantage of the later Barenboim one is that they made better use of the medium by adding the two romances. Perlman/Giulini was a very skimpy release (as was the later Brahms). One bone to pick, though. This was not the moment when the industry sat up and took notice of Perlman as a serious artist. That came some five years earlier, when the Beethoven violin sonatas with Ashkenazy came out. They were at least as well received as this concerto. So wel, in fact, that they might have been reference recordings for the complete set (were it not for that pesky Grumiaux/Haskil box...).

I remember entering the Sistine Chapel for the first time and not looking up some 40 years ago now already. The sublime of The Last Judgement just hooked my attention. How come? Because it's the absolute masterpiece for any chapel. It's the reference one. I guess that was also my personal impression when I listened to this recording for the first time. It felt right

Bought also as soon as it came out, but not my favourite. It really is the "new" référence, though. But to my mind comes something else about recording this marvellous work: Menuhin praised the child prodigy Sarah Chang and since that day we have been waiting for her interpretation of the work, haven't we...?!

Oistrakh / Cluytens was the first vinyl I bought in the mid 70s and my favorite. The largest variations I've noticed in artistic interpretation is in the Kreisler cadenzas. Very few played cadenzas by others (I think Bell wrote his own and he is no Kreisler). I have the Barenboim but no others by Perlman. Has anyone heard Martzy's recording?

"If you've made the reference recording, don’t repeat yourself"…unless, of course, your name is Adrian Boult, and the work is The Planets…

"expectorate the bowels of his creativity..."

Thanks for this. And, as you say, surprisingly late! I wonder if there will be a similar story with other reference recordings: a work so popular but serious and profound that there are multiple highly regarded versions until one emerges from the pack.

Yes, it's a great, great performance. I prefer those with the cadenza of violin and timps, but you couldn't get better than Perlman.

Funnily enough, I've never heard that particular recording. I remember seeing it in the record store, but I already had half a dozen versions of the Beethoven concerto and wasn't interested in another. I had already heard Perlman's recording with Barenboim, and it was "meh" for me, so that probably influenced my decision not to get the Giullini collab.

I think there might be local differences - no nationalistic nonsense, but maybe more a question of view point. For many years the Schneiderhan/Jochum was the (or one of the) reference recording(s) this side of the Atlantic, especially when you apply your consensus criteria with respect to what constitutes a recording to be considered a reference. Beside my normal job I worked for almost 20 years, a couple of days a month, with 2nd hand classical cds (pricing, sorting, etc.). I might have happened upon the Perlman/Giulini recording once in awhile, but can't recall it. I certainly would have, if it had been. a recording we had in spades (like fx the ubiquitous Mahler/VPO/Maazel recordings), especially because Giulini was a conductor I took a liking to already in my youth. For many years my personal references were, indeed, Schneiderhan/Jochum, and Milstein/Steinberg, that is untill I happened upon the fabulous partnership of Grumiaux/van Beinum...and, lo and behold, another reference triptych materialized on the horizon! (A reference for The Brahms vln.concerto will be so much easier: we just have to negotiate whether the accompanist ought to be Klemperer with The Orchestra National de la Radiodifusion Francaise or Szell with his Clevelanders. My choice would hands down be to go with Klemperer)

Upon hearing the death of Maurizio Polini, could you do the reference recording on Chopin's two études?

Yes this is the version I have.

When I was younger it seemed the music press was always talking about Schneiderhan/Jochum or Krebbers/Haitink, though this one got a bump from being an early (the first?) CD version available. It was my first purchased version, and while it was always 'very fine' isn't it maybe a bit ... boring? Especially in the last movement which needs a bit of romp. Giulini for all his merits wasn't very rompy by 1980.

Dave, I understand your enthusiasm for this version, but I would like to know why you did not even mention Grumiaux, nor A S Mutter. And you forgot to praise the importance of the timpani in the opening bars...

Perlman/Giulini was my favorite until I heard Grumiaux/Davis. Also, I don't find Perlman's second recording to be anywhere near as good as the reference. I guess the Menuhin/Furtwangler(1947) recording was too obscure to be considered a reference.