Beethoven: Violin Concerto; Romances Nos. 1 & 2
Made when Menuhin was in his 30s, this recording catches him at his incomparable peak. His technique is effortless, smooth, and perfect, but it is his tone that is truly breathtaking in its intensity, radiance, purity, and  personal expressiveness. The low register glows warmly, while the top has a  celestial shimmer. Playing from deep inside the music, he emphasizes the  improvisatory freedom of the Romances, especially the second one, making them dreamy, warm, urgent, ecstatic, ethereal, and almosttooromantic. The  Concerto, too, has a wonderful, flexible spontaneity combined with a grand  conception; each theme has its own character: the passage-work plays around the melodies in the orchestra, the slow movement is serene and inward, and the Rondo is sprightly and full of life. The virtuosity of the Kreisler cadenzas never overshadows their musical substance. Furtwängler's approach is fascinatingly different from today's in its imaginative freedom: tempos change for every theme and every mood, and speeds increase and decrease along with the dynamics, yet these liberties sound completely natural and organic, enhancing rather than distorting the music. Salvatore Accardo'svery different recordingof the same works makes for an interesting comparison: classically austere, noble, inwardly expressive without outward changes, restrained in tempo and feeling, it is entirely convincing.--Edith Eisler