Also, 24 Caprices; Rossini Variations; The Carnival of Venice. Michael
Rabin, Yehudi Menuhin, Frank Peter Zimmermann, and Salvatore Accardo, violin; Sir
Eugene Goossens, Alberto Erede, and Franco Tamponi, conductors; Philharmonia
Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
EMI Classics (France) 7243 5 75332-2 (2-disc set).
Good things come to
those who wait. I just never expected to wait twenty years.
When the CD age
dawned in the early Eighties, I had a long list of things I wanted to get on
compact disc. Over the years the list shortened, and by just a few years ago it
was down to only two items. Now, with
my finding the Paganini, I’ve completed the list.
Michael Rabin
recorded his remarkable performance of Paganini’s First Violin Concerto way back in 1960 with Sir Eugene Goossens and
the Philharmonia Orchestra. I didn’t come to it until the late Sixties,
however, by which time it had gone on to the budget label, Seraphim, and later
I managed to find it on an EMI Electrola German issue. The sound wasn’t so hot,
but the interpretation was the best I had ever heard, and the best I’ve yet to
hear. In its opening movements Rabin’s violin sings lyrically and
melancholically and plaintively, and in the final movement it struts and
dances, the cock o’ the walk. Never have I heard such verve, such exceptional
vibrancy and wit and energy, as in Rabin’s reading. Indeed, the only minor
drawback for some listeners may be the traditional cuts Rabin makes in the
score, but the very conciseness of the result for me works in its favor,
rendering every note all the more succulently.
But that’s not all.
I had never expected the sound to be much more than passable; it was the
performance I cherished. Besides, the later recording by Itzhak Perlman, also
on EMI, was sonically splendid enough if it were just sound I was after.
Imagine my surprise and delight to discover that this first-time transfer of
Rabin to CD also sounds magnificent. In fact, in many ways it surpasses
Perlman’s rendition. Rabin’s violin sounds perhaps a touch too close, and its
tone is just a tad bright, but it is marvelously clean and alive; and the
orchestral accompaniment, while somewhat recessed overall is, nevertheless,
highly dynamic, with plenty of low-end sock. Moreover, there is hardly a trace
of background noise you’ll notice, unless you turn up the volume to the
threshold of pain.
All in all, this
two-disc set is worth its price for the First
Violin Concerto alone, but there is more. It’s filled out with Yehudi
Menuhin’s recording of the Second
Concerto, also from 1960, and also splendidly transferred to disc. Menuhin
hasn’t quite the zip or dash of Rabin, but the Second Concerto makes a fine companion. As does Frank Peter
Zimmermann’s playing of Paganini's 24
Caprices, recorded in 1984-85. Although you’ll find these violin studies in
bravura showmanship done equally well or better by (who else?) Rabin, available
on EMI’s Great Recordings of the Century series, who’s to argue with icing on
the cake with Zimmermann’s renditions. Finally, there are two short Paganini
pieces done by Salvatore Accardo, with Franco Tamponi and the Chamber Orchestra
of Europe backing him, recorded in 1983, and these pieces, too, are appealing
and well recorded.
Perhaps the only
snag in this affair is the fact that as of this writing only EMI Music France
has made the set available (at mid-price). But various sites on-line have it
available, like Amazon.com and TowerRecords.com. For me, it was worth every
penny of its twenty-odd-dollar asking price, and I see now that you can get it
for much less than that. Besides, who knows, maybe someday Warner Classics, the
new owners of EMI, will see fit to issue it in this country.
Oh, and that one
remaining item on my list I finally found? The Mozart “Jupiter” Symphony with Eugene Jochum and the Boston Symphony on
DG. Practically every critic in the world at the time of its mid-Seventies
release on LP recommended it, yet the folks at DG still have not released it on
CD in the U.S. Maybe they are still waiting to give it a big entrance.
Meanwhile, DG did issue the recording on CD in Germany, and, yes, I found it,
almost by accident, at a German import site. But all of this is beside the
point. The Paganini is available; think about it.
To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click here:
JJP
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