Album Reviews

Scoring a concerto for violin and cello provided pianist/composer Brahms with an opportunity to create a piano like texture by simultaneously using the low and high-pitched strings to create keyboard-like chords.

Beyond that observation, which I lifted form the scholarly annotation and came to then understand by listening to the concerto, don’t expect meaningful classical musical analysis from me. However, I can tell you that whether or not you know a great deal about classical music, you will surely find the dynamic duo’s playing both thrilling and moving as they draw out every drop of musical emotion from Brahms’ stately and dramatic themes, Heifetz playing a 1742 Guarnarius violin and Piatagorsky a cello made by Stradavarius in 1714. You think your pre-CBS Telecaster is old?

The melodies Brahms creates and weaves through the three movements are of the fiery-dramatic, heart-tugging variety though the final one skips merrily to the concerto’s conclusion. The “Concerto For Violin and Cello” is a relatively short, tuneful and not difficult to grasp romantic work. With the help of the “play-by-play” annotation, you can listen, read along and follow Brahms’s construct, or you can just sit back and let the piece’s deeply felt emotions carry you along. With Heifetz and Piatagorsky in the spotlight, I don’t see how you can go wrong, though I haven’t studied other recordings of the piece. I got this one back in 1969 and stuck with it!

The studio recording is rich and warm, closed in, and “old fashioned” sounding. Over the years, as my stereo has improved, the recording keeps sounding better, but if you’re expecting one of those concert hall spatial extravaganzas you’ll be disappointed. However, the violin and cello recording of Heifetz and Piatgorsky is silky smooth and appropriately intimate and that’s the main course.

The reissue, cut at AcousTech doesn’t quite have the openness of the original but it makes up for it with a pleasing midband warmth that tamps down some of the original’s boxiness. Surfaces are far quieter than either of the original Sorias I have.

This reissue’s presentation can’t touch the original’s sturdy, cloth-textured jacket, nor can the new one’s abbreviated six sided single sheet insert compare to the original’s ten page stapled extravaganza, complete with a glued-in leaflet showing the original sheet music’s opening Allegro, but no original I’ve heard, and I’ve heard many, can match the quiet of this reissue’s surfaces.

For some reason, many of the deluxe Soria Series produced by RCA came with noisy surfaces (I’ll leave it to one of the “Living Stereo” historians to explain why, if in fact there is an explanation), and the originals of this one were not exceptions, so score one for the reissue.

A wonderful reissue from the Cisco folks, deserving of your support.