If there was ever a musician with intelligence and integrity,
Liza Ferschtman is that musician, so it was a delight to see
her teamed up with another highly respected Dutch artist, Jan
Willem de Vriend. Add a fine orchestra into the mix and put
it all onto a state of the art SACD recording and I think we’re
already into ‘treat’ territory before we’ve
even started listening.
There are perhaps some aspects of this performance which won’t
please everyone, so I’ll get those out of the way to start
with. Jan Willem de Vriend is very much part of the ‘early
music’ scene in The Netherlands, and he has introduced
elements of period performance practice into The Netherlands
Symphony Orchestra, including relatively hard-sticks for the
timpani, period brass instruments, and a minimum of vibrato
in the string sections. This is something which doesn’t
bother me particularly, and I quite like the clean string sound
this technique brings in this piece. Just have a listen to the
Larghetto to gain an impression of how this works, allowing
the music to speak for itself through phrasing and dynamics
rather than wringing extra intensity out with the different
sheen of a general vibrato-laden sound. There are arguments
on both sides, and you may find the conjoining of a ‘modern’
sounding soloist with an ‘antique’ sounding orchestra
either to be a source of troubling controversy, or something
which generates fascinating contrasts. Some of this will depend
on what you are already used to, but if you are prepared to
listen with an open mind and take the qualities of this performance
at face value then I’m convinced you’ll definitely
be more in ‘treat’ than ‘torture’ territory.
In general, the orchestra is just that bit more understated
than on many other versions, but apart from that the differences
are more subtle than radical. The basses are deep and full,
the tuttis full-blooded, and with superb detail in the recording
there is plenty of texture and timbre to get your teeth into.
The soloist is where it’s really at in this recording,
and even a brief audition over my car stereo on the way back
from another obscure gig had seasoned orchestral musicians exclaiming
‘wauw’ - which is Dutch for ‘wow’ -
in the passenger seat. Liza Ferschtman has that purity of tone
and absolute singing quality which you want in this piece, with
lines glittering above the orchestra and each cadenza a sublime
masterpiece. For cadenza spotters, that in the first movement
is Beethoven’s own, transcribed from the piano concerto
version of the piece by Wolfgang Schneiderhan; that in the third
movement is by Fritz Kreisler. The high notes ring out with
refined clarity, her phrasing is natural and inventive at the
same time - a long pedigree as a chamber musician adding to
that stable technical footing a degree of expressive flexibility
which plays with and alongside the orchestra rather than over
or against it. Have a listen to the interactions in the beginning
of the final Rondo to get a flavour, but the entire piece
has a sense of collaboration and amicable teamwork. This solo
playing is both musically a kind of idealised perfection, but
also has a potent communicative element: a human breath and
warmth which teases and confides as well as transcending our
own earth-bound artistic poverty. We are made to feel participants,
and given a sense of aspiration as well as a jaw-dropping experience
of the mystic and the magical - the super-human, from both player
and composer.
My own affections for this piece are founded in the now rather
elderly recording but still fresh sounding performance made
with Isaac Stern and the New York Philharmonic and Leonard Bernstein,
available on the Sony label. I doubt many people rate this particular
recording much these days, but I always rather liked Stern’s
compact vibrato and ability to be both soulful and dramatic
almost at the same time. My old 1950s DG LP of a sweetly expressive
Wolfgang Schneiderhan with the Berlin Philharmoniker and Paul
van Kempen is also a treasured old artefact, though the later
recording with Eugen Jochum is generally preferred by connoisseurs.
Ferschtman is entirely different to both of course, certainly
more accurate than Stern in terms of intonation, but while her
vibrato isn’t quite as steely-tight it most certainly
is not slack or distracting in any way, very much an expressive
cherry on top of the sound, rather than any kind of defining
or distracting factor.
This is a very fine SACD recording, and, knowing the acoustic
of the Muziekcentrum Enschede first hand is not a prerequisite
for feeling as if you are ‘in the room’ while listening
- in fact, if you know it too well you will know for
certain you are not sitting in the front row staring at a wall;
the front of the stage. There are many alternatives in this
central pillar of the violin repertoire, but for me this Challenge
Classics release is the whole package. It might have been nice
to have one of Beethoven’s overtures to start the programme
and fill out the timing a little, but the two Violin Romances
are played with great affection, and all of their melodic charm
is beautifully and sensitively brought forth on this highly
desirable recording.
Dominy Clements
Liza Ferschtman (violin) 
[58:27] 
