Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto (Hybr)

[I am utterly astounded at the negative tone of the previous customer review here of Julia Fischer's traversal of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto and some of his other concerted violin works. The writer's reference to "frequent odd noises on the disk, including instrument sounds, fizzing, fuzziness and noises as made with a live audience" makes me wonder if s/he got hold of a defective disc. I heard no such extraneous noises. As for the negative comments on Fischer's technical abilities, I can only gape in wonder and assume we must have been listening to different discs.]

Julia Fischer is a young German violinist who has truly come into her own in the last few years. She is now recording exclusively for the PentaTone label and they have given her luxuriously refulgent SACD sound and marvelous engineering. She is supported here by the virtuosic Russian National Orchestra under Jakov Kreizberg, a rising Russian-born conductor living in the US since the 1970s (and brother of conductor Semyon Bychkov). Her playing here is subtle and nuanced, marked by extraordinary management of dynamics -- her pianissimi are hair-raising in the first movement cadenza; the brio of her playing especially in the allegro vivacissimo finale is sensational. And never an ugly sound, even in loud passages with double stops.

For lagniappe we get Tchaikovsky's two other concerted works for violin and orchestra, the lovely Sérénade mélancolique and the sprightly Valse - Scherzo, Op. 34, both played with the same flair and luscious tone as the concerto.

Finally, there is the rarely heard Souvenir d'un lieu cher ('Memory of a Beloved Place') with conductor Kreizberg at the piano. I will confess I'd never heard it before and was utterly charmed by this sixteen-minute work with its three movements: Méditation, Scherzo, and Mélodie. (The first movement uses material Tchaikovsky had composed and then rejected for the slow movement of the Concerto.) There is the usual Tchaikovsky melancholy coupled with a sensitive piano accompaniment (sensitively played by Kreizberg). It was so lovely that on first hearing I had to press the repeat function and listen to it again.

Recommended.

Scott Morrison

If you are at all familiar with Tchaikovsky's violin concerto, you'll be as disconcerted as I was with this version. At first, it seems an excellent thing that the violinist is in the forefront. But soon into the recording you may be wondering, as I did, just what you were listening to. The violinist's performance lacks continuity, as well as passion and frankly, personality. I cannot say if this is due to interpretation or skill level. Nor do the orchestra and violinist seem to be in synch -- I rather feel like the two rehearsed and recorded separately and then were merged into this CD. I found it disappointing, as I also found the frequent odd noises on the disk, including instrument sounds, fizzing, fuzziness and noises as made with a live audience. Sorry, Julia -- I loved your Vivaldi four seasons, but the Tchaikovsky is done better by Bell, Vengerov, Sitkovetsky, or just about anyone else.