Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante, K. 364 (XRCD review)

Also, Duo for Violin and Viola in G, K. 423.  Igor Oistrakh, violin; David Oistrakh, viola; Kiril Kondrashin, Moscow Philharmonic.  FIM XR24 069.

The first problem I had after hearing this 24-bit XRCD remaster is one that every person should have: Namely, I didn't want to listen to anything else. It's like watching a high-definition broadcast on TV and having to go back to standard definition. You get spoiled.

The second problem was more serious, although it should not put everyone off too much. While the sound of the disc is superlative and Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante is terrific music, I could never get too involved with David and Igor Oistrakh's playing of it. The father and son are absolutely precise, refined, letter-perfect, I'm sure, but I found their performance almost too perfect, too mechanically perfect. With the exception of the lovely, if melancholy, second movement, the Oistrakhs perform the Sinfonia as though it were a museum piece under glass. The brief Duo for Violin and Viola comes off better, but it is undoubtedly for the big orchestral concerto that buyers will come to this audiophile disc.

However, the sound, as I say, is so good maybe listeners won't even notice that the performance is slightly lacking in warmth and spontaneity. The people at First Impression Music transferred the sonics from the original 1963 Decca master tape, engineered by Kenneth Wilkinson, in the meticulous (and costly) XRCD process, producing a disc of stunning clarity and presence. Just understand that because of the high price of this issue, you had better already be familiar with the recording. Unless, of course, you're simply an audiophile, in which case the sound is all that will matter, and the disc is a no-brainer.

JJP