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             


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

REVIEW


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

 

 

alternatively
CD: MDT

Édouard LALO (1823 - 1892)
Symphonie Espagnole
in D minor, op.21 (1873) [31:40]
Henri VIEUXTEMPS (1820 - 1881)
Violin Concerto No.5 in A minor, op.37 (1861) [19:02]
Camille SAINT-SAËNS (1835 - 1921)
Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso
, op.28 (1863) [9:12]
Shlomo Mintz (violin)
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra/Zubin Mehta
rec. 20-27 October 1988, Frederick R Mann Auditorium, Tel Aviv. DDD
reissue of Deutsche Grammophon 457 8962
BRILLIANT CLASSICS 94070 [60:01]

Experience Classicsonline


A delightful collection of lightish French works for violin and orchestra, which tickle the ear and gladden the soul. Lightish to listen to, but a virtuoso minefield for the poor soloist, for behind the very attractive façade is a veritable smörgåsbord of technical difficulties. Virtuosi of Shlomo Mintz’s calibre take these things in their stride and make it all sound like child’s play. I am sure that sometimes they wish it were!
 
Lalo’s marvellous Symphonie Espagnole is given in the five movement version, and I feel that it works better this way, for the work is fuller and more attractive. From a performance point of view Mintz is in his element here, obviously enjoying the music and having a good time playing it. The problem, for me, is that Mehta’s accompaniment is too heavy for this summer sunshine work. It’s too over-played with too little humour and not enough smiles. Although a virtuoso work, this is also a jeu d’esprit, and, as such, requires the lightest of touches. Oddly, both Mintz’s and Mehta’s views of the piece work fairly well together.
 
The Fifth Concerto by Henri Vieuxtemps was once a real old war-horse, but I haven’t heard it in years. It may have fallen out of the concert repertoire but there are still 17 different recordings of the piece by 16 different violinists ranging from Lola Bobesco to Jascha Heifetz. Mintz and Mehta are at one here and give a pleasant performance of a pleasant work. There are no highs and lows in this piece, just a nice walk in the musical countryside with some flashy passages and thoughtful melodic material. It might not set the blood boiling but it will give pleasure.
 
Saint-Saëns’s brilliant Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso has always been a favourite amongst violinists, and it’s easy to understand why this is. It has two contrasting sections which allow the soloist to meditate and sparkle. There’s not much for the orchestra to do, but that isn’t important for we want to hear the fiddle scintillate, and that is what Mintz does here.
 
If you don’t know them, this disk is a solid introduction to all three works, but for real blistering interpretations, I couldn’t be without Nathan Milstein live at Montreux, on 11 September 1955 with L’Orchestre Nationale de Paris under André Cluytens in the Lalo (Claves 50-2708 - coupled with the Brahms Concerto live in 1960 with the NDR-Sinfonieorchester, under Paul Kletzki) - this is the four movement version but anything Milstein touched became pure gold and that is the case here, so I forgive him his refusal to play the Intermezzo. For the Saint-Saëns go to Michael Rabin with the Philharmonia under Alceo Galliera (only available in a 6 CD set called The Art of Michael Rabin, EMI Classics CMS 7 64123 2).
 
Bob Briggs  

 

 

 

 


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






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.