Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto / Dvorak: Violin Concerto; Romance for Violin & Orchestra, Opp. 11,53 (Isaac Stern - A Life in Music, Vol. 5)
This is a wonderful recording of two famous, justly beloved concertos played with all the romantic ardor, poetic lyricism, urgent drama, serenity, and ecstasy one could wish for. Stern's technique is impeccable, his tone gorgeous: the low register has a warm glow, the top a soaring, celestial shimmer. His phrasing is elegant, his expressiveness simple, deeply inward, never sentimental or exaggerated. Dvorák's less familiar, lovely Romance inF-minor, adapted from the slow movement of an unpublished string quartet, predates the concerto by several years. Dvorák later orchestrated the original piano part, adding much color and atmosphere. Based on a lilting, tender, melancholy theme, it becomes suddenly lively and affirmative in the coda; after some major-minor fluctuations, it surges up passionately and floats into sunlit serenity. Among other Dvorák recordings, that byJosef Suk, the composer's great-grandson and representing the family tradition, is also splendid.--Edith Eisler