| Review by JW May 23, 2003 (9 of 10 found this review helpful)
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Performance:  Sonics: |
This is such beautiful music and so beautifully played ! Classical music at its best in my view and simply invigorating to listen to. If you want to convince someone to get into SACD, this is as good a place to start as any! Both of these works are well known. The flowing melodies of the Concerto in D Major are just gorgeous. The solo's are complicated and technically challenging, more so than the Mendelssohn piece. In that sense the Concerto in E Minor displays more of a wholeness than the Tchaikovsky. The violin parts are more integrated into the overall themes. This does not take away anything from either pieces, it's just an observation. It's not without reason that Isaac Stern is regarded as one of the world's most acclaimed violinists. His tone is warm and he plays precise and with enormous feeling on these recordings.
Sonically this Sony SACD is pretty good with a nice sense of orchestral weight and acoustical space. The violin is recorded fairly close (forward) which I guess is a minor nitpick with this disc. It may not be as you hear it in the concert hall, but it does give you a first row perspective on one of the greatest players in the world. The violin never gets thin or harsh. This is a 1959 recording and soundwise you would not know it. Some folks have noted that the editing job on the Tchaikovsky piece leaves something to be desired, but I found that if you don't listen for it you don't hear it and I probably shouldn't have told you this anyway. That said, full stars for sonics!
Jw
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| Review by markie1949 July 2, 2005 (5 of 6 found this review helpful)
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Performance: Sonics: |
| I have listened to this recording for many years on vinyl. The sacd version is beyond belief. I can't start to use the prose I've seen posted here to describe the sonics of this recording, but I believe this is an essential, glorious, beautiful sonic experience that vividly showcases the sacd medium.
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| Review by canonical April 21, 2009 (9 of 10 found this review helpful)
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Performance: Sonics: |
I normally prefer to purchase SACDs recorded post-2000 in hi-rez. This is a 1958 recording, converted from the original analog tapes to SACD. I wasn't expecting fireworks when I purchased this, ... but what an absolute gem this is! The sound quality is just unbelievably good - warm, lush, natural, pure, rich and real. No hiss, no surface noise - it sounds better than new recordings. It is absolutely brilliant.
Performance: I played both the Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn concertos on the violin as a teenager, so I know them both very well, and I have countless recordings of both. Stern's Tchaikovsky is simply phenomenal. I think it is easily the best Tchaikovsky I have ever heard. The recording is front row: the way they used to do it, and the way, I am sure, Stern would have liked it. I was not quite as enamoured with the Mendelssohn - not as sweet as some others (Zukerman as a teenager, Mintz) - but it's still great by any measure.
There are still a few copies of this SACD floating around. Do yourself a favour: get a copy, new or used, while you can. Highly recommended.
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