MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively AmazonUK AmazonUS

 

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Triple Concerto for violin, cello and piano in C major, op.56 (1808) [34:02]
Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Double Concerto for violin and cello in A minor, op.102 (1887) [32:53]
Christian Ferras (violin); Paul Tortelier (cello) (Beethoven); Eric Heidsieck (piano) (Beethoven); Janos Starker (cello) (Brahms)
Orchestre National de Radio France/Jean Martinon (Beethoven)
Orchestre National de Radio France/Charles Bruck (Brahms)
rec. unnamed venues, 11 March 1970 (Beethoven) and 7 October 1969 (Brahms)
DOREMI LEGENDARY PERFORMANCES DHR7716 [66:55] 

 

Experience Classicsonline


According to my trusty copy of Collins English Dictionary, the only possible one of several meanings of “legendary” that can be appropriately applied to a commercial recording is “very famous or notorious”. 

As far as I am aware, these nearly forty years old live radio performances are neither famous nor notorious – let alone “very” of either. Perhaps Doremi are suggesting, by their labelling, that they ought to be so regarded? If so, I think they are, to say the least, over-egging the pudding for, even if graced by the participation of some very highly thought of musicians, these are essentially run-of-the-mill and rather muddily recorded outings. 

Moreover, there is a competing and identically-coupled pair of performances that has genuine claims to legendary status. One of EMI Classics’s Great Recordings of the Century, it features Oistrakh, Rostropovich and Richter, along with Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic, in the Beethoven, after which Oistrakh and Rostropovich are accompanied by George Szell’s Cleveland Orchestra in the Brahms (EMI Classics 5 66902 2). Alongside this giant, the “legendary” performances on the new disc fade back into the obscurity they have inhabited since they were first broadcast. 

From the very opening of Beethoven’s first movement, Ferras, Tortelier and Heidsieck sound, to my ears, somewhat cautious and tentative, almost as though they are working out on the hoof exactly how to interact with each other and are desperate not to steal too much of the individual limelight. Their Russian rivals, on the other hand, play with supreme individual flair and complete confidence, both in each other and as a collective unit, so that even if in reality their timings for all three movements are longer, each seems to go with more of an innate swing. 

The picture in the Brahms is much the same, I am afraid. Comparatively dim sound and rather ordinary performances hamstring this issue from the start and despite some moments of attractive playing from the soloists, this is really uncompetitive. 

The current fashion for trawling the archives of European radio stations has, as demonstrated by the Medici masters series, certainly recovered some lost treasures. But, as this disc demonstrates, even with the involvement of artists of the first rank, there is also a great deal of nondescript material out there too, most of it probably best consigned to the ether for ever.

Rob Maynard



 




 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.