Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site
In the Forum: Musical Discussions
In the Thread: Oistrakh(s) on Monitor MC 2009 (1957)
Post Subject: Compared to Perlman/Stern/Mehta/NYPPosted by Paul S on: 9/9/2007
I will certainly look for the Heifetz you mention, Romy. I gave away the later "vanity" issue!
Digging through my still largely un-racked LPs I did find another Bach "Double Violin" with Perlman and Stern "under" Mehta, with the New York Philharmonic. I have the 1983 "Dolby" re-mastered stereo, which is actually good enough to where that is not the issue. Just the usual artifically large "stage spread" (who can resist; after all, it's STEREO?!?)
Here, Mehta extends every professional courtesy to his stars while at the same time making sure this is his piece.
Meta has the short strings swirling around with the fugues and rondos, with the longs strings assigned to plunk along with the most infernal harpsichord. The result is somehow liturgical despite the distinctly secular nature (to me, at least)of the piece.
I am being flip here, because the playing is actually good, I suppose, and I would not really rate the overall performance "bad", by any means.
But I just can't abide that high-pitched voicing for Bach, which seemed to sweep over us in the 60s, only to be replaced by Hogwood, etc., in the 80's, and I can't stand the measures just pounded out on the pumped-up harpsichord.
Another time I might take more kindly to this performance, but this morning I put the Oistrakh (above) on right after just to calm my nerves.
I am reminded to say that other things being equal I would opt for stereo every time, "stage spread" notwithstanding!
Best regards,
Paul S
Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site