Jaltcoh: Best. Sinfonia Concertante. Ever.

Friday, November 21, 2014

Best. Sinfonia Concertante. Ever.

4 comments:

Richard Lawrence Cohen said...: Beautiful. A little fast, as most things are nowadays, but wonderfully expressive. I had the LP of David and Igor Oistrakh with the Moscow Philarharmonic, 1951, conducted by Yehudi Menuhin -- David O. on viola this time -- and your post brings it back for me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoLvL0ZkA0w

Hard to compare the two without taking into account the differences in body language and video production between then and now.

I've been seeing Vilde Frang on YouTube with Janine Jansen and Friends, who've made some videos together, like Tchaikovsky's "Souvenir of Florence:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vulKECq4r60
(engineering not great); November 21, 2014
John Althouse Cohen said...: What a world of difference between Menuhin's version and this one. They'd be good examples to play for someone who's just starting to get into classical music and wondering how much it matters which performance you listen to.

To me, Menuhin is insufferably slow, and the one I've posted is close to ideal. Maybe not perfect, but much closer to perfect than Menuhin is. I almost feel sorry for the people in that black-and-white 1951 video who needed to sit through all that, instead of being able to live in the present, when you can go through a bunch of different versions on your computer and choose to listen to your favorite one.; November 21, 2014
Richard Lawrence Cohen said...: It sure is great to be able to see and hear all those versions and pieces in one place! I've been discovering the new generation of musicians -- and quite a few of the old -- that way.

I do adulate David Oistrakh, partly because I heard him during my childhood. His complete EMI recordings are available as a 17-disc boxed set for a remarkably low price. Some of the great works, e.g. Beethoven's concerto, are on it in more than one version -- his repertory was a bit narrow and, being in the USSR, he recorded less than his Western peers. His Archduke trio, with Lev Oborin on piano, is unsurpassed, in my opinion.; November 22, 2014
Anonymous said...: The performance was very enjoyable. I won't attempt to comment on the sound quality because I had to listen through my hearing aids. The visual quality was excellent, but I found the visual editing distracting. It really would be better without the flitting around of camera aspects. We really do not need to see the playing of every phrase in the piece.; November 24, 2014

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