This disc comes at
budget-price is Sony’s Great Performances
series by the leading performers
of the period 1960-1990. In the field
of violin virtuosity then was none finer
than the great Isaac Stern (1920-2001).
Stern is recorded here, without a doubt,
in his prime. The same goes for the
Philadelphia Orchestra under their regular
conductor for 44 years the great Eugene
Ormandy (1899-1985). All of these performers
share a rapport. With these recordings
you are eavesdropping on a vintage period.
It’s often said that
the best Spanish music has been written
by Frenchmen. Think of Chabrier or Ravel,
Debussy and Bizet whose influential
Carmen had been written just
two years before Lalo started work on
this ‘Symphonie’. I often wonder if
Théophile Gautier (1811-1872)
was at least partially responsible.
He was a poet, set to music by Fauré,
Saint-Saëns and others. He also
wrote an extremely successful travel
book about Spain ‘Voyage en Espagnole’
completed in 1845. This caught the imagination
of many, and quite possibly of Eduard
Lalo, who is one of several ‘one work
composers’. Practically nothing else
of his ever gets a chance of regular
performance. The odd thing is that this
famous work is not really a symphony
at all, being in five non-related movements
with an Intermezzo placed third.
For that matter it is not a conventional
concerto either. But neither is it an
easy piece to tackle with many famously
treacherous passages and several short-lived
changes of tempo. Needless to say Stern
negotiates them faultlessly and utterly
convincingly. Indeed this is a totally
reliable performance, both in execution,
tempo and recorded balance. Every note
is clear and the phrasing beautiful
and immaculate.
Talking of one work
composers, Max Bruch almost falls into
that category. I say almost because
one or two other pieces are reasonably
well known, ‘Kol Nidrei’ being one and
the ‘Scottish Fantasy’ is another. Nevertheless
this first concerto (there are three
in all), written when Bruch was 30 years
old, is by far his most played and is
the best known by ‘Joe Public’, or should
I say the regular Classic FM listener.
You must forget that it is so often
heard and just enjoy the playing. To
me it’s immaculate. True, the recording,
as indeed in the Lalo, is a little colourless
and sometimes boxy. The strings suffer
especially from this defect. True, the
full frontal impact of the brass writing
does not always come across but the
elegant woodwind playing, especially
in movement one, amply makes up for
that. True, the tempo of the slow movement
is quite sluggish but it’s all so lovable
and is somehow just right. Incidentally
I am not coming to this recording from
the view-point of having known it since
I was, well, knee-high to a music teacher.
I have only been listening to it for
a few weeks, so I have an unbiased viewpoint.
It will have become obvious to you that
I am not going to compare Stern’s interpretations
with the myriad others who have recorded
these works. I could, I suppose, have
mentioned Tasmin Little’s forthright
Bruch concerto on EMI or Sarah Chang’s
very Spanish-sounding Lalo also on EMI,
but there are too many others.
Unlike some others
in Sony’s so called ‘Great Performances’
series this is truly what it is cracked
up to be. This is a version you could
safely give to your mother-in-law.
Gary Higginson
Isaac Stern (violin) 
