Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto Hybr

Milton "... was born for whatever is arduous; and his work is not the greatest of heroic poems, only because it is not the first".This compact disc is my first experience with the SACD format, and it was a wonderful experience, destined to be repeated. (I also ordered the Heifetz/Reiner SACD of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto and the SACD of the landmark legendary Getz/Gilberto recording, but they haven't arrived.) I listened three times, three ways: the SACD Multi-Channel layer, the stereo layer in stereo, and the stereo layer in 5-Channel stereo, which I'll discuss later below.Back in the days long before the Compact Disc came along, I would record a brand-new LP onto a reel-to-reel stereo tape recorder, for two reasons: the first playing of the LP would be its unique maiden voyage and all subsequent playings would be degraded regardless of the care, even if the stylus was changed frequently and the record wasn't played twice within a 24-hour period (the stylus tip tracks the low point of the groove and its friction produces a lot of heat that expands the groove as it passes, so if the record is played again before the expanded groove relaxes -- about 24 hours -- the stylus will track deeper, vibrate more and thereby harder in the widened groove, and begin to etch away the fragile electrons of impulses, leaving distorted sound and bleed-through from an adjoining section of the groove), meaning I could play the recording from the tape or parts of it repeatedly; also, if I was playing along to the recording or trying to learn a particular passage of the music, and needed a relatively loud volume, the loudness wouldn't reach the stylus and tonearm's pickup cartridge where it would create audible feedback and distortion, possibly even jarring the stylus.Lo, in 1983 the Compact Disc and Compact Disc Player were made available to us. No longer would you have to turn the record over to hear the complete Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto -- and maybe tip over your glass of wine. You could play along to anything without any distortion, and repeatedly. Even better, you could program the repeat function on the player to repeat any passage over and over if you were trying to learn it. Also in 1983 the brilliant violinists Julia Fischer and Sayaka Shoji were born, and coincidentally they waited until their 22nd or 23rd year before recording the Violin Concerto. Theirs are my favorite versions of the Tchaikovsky "snatch of grace beyond the reach of art" (Alexander Pope). Evidently destiny is what was meant to be. It's hard to imagine that children who practice and learn music don't use the CD player's repeat function; we are all beneficiaries of the technology, as there are no longer only a mere few magnificent young musicians.The SACD layer is not superior to the stereo track for sonics, tone, or other audio qualities, but it is wondrous and exciting for its acoustics. The orchestral instruments are clear and discrete, their timbres always self-evident. Frau Fischer's violin is always front and center. But her violin on the 2-channel stereo track won't stay put because (1) she moves her violin laterally all the time as she herself moves and rotates, so that her violin can traverse as much as eight feet, and (2) my front loudspeakers are spaced too far apart for this kind of stereo recording. Consequently, her violin moves from the center to the right channel and then to the left channel, which is quite annoying and hardly faithful to a concert hall experience. When I engaged the 5-channel stereo process on the receiver and played the disc's stereo layer, the center channel speaker kept her violin where it belonged.Finally, I purchased this SACD, along with Frau Fischer's two DVD recordings, after I had watched (on YouTube) her June 2013 performance in Paris of the Violin Concerto (Oh! How I wish for a Blu-Ray recording of that magnificent performance!), and after watching her recent (December 2013) interview, when she explained that she returned her borrowed Stradivarius years ago and bought her own Guadagnini, but cannot afford a Stradivarius, which "has an extra zero" on the end of the price. So I want to help her earn royalties. What else can one person do?

Julia Fischer is one of the finest violinists around, and this recording is one of the best of Tchiakovsky's popular Violin Concerto. Ms. Fischer plays with great fire, equally from emotion as well as from intellect, while most others are capable of only the former. To her, this music is worth doing as well as it can be, which means emphasizing the archetecture of the concerto and the relationship of the three other pieces on this disc to it. Ms Fischer plays the complete, uncut concerto with all the repeats in the first and third movements intact, which displays the formal balance of the work. Other violinists cut these repeats, which seems to say they merely want to barnstorm through the piece, placing emphasis on themselves. This is frankly what Heifetz and many others do, not taking the piece seriously as the interesting work it is. By the way, most of Ms Fischer's other recordings are of an equally high value, such as her recording of the Brahms "Double", also with Mr Kreitzberg and the Russian National Orchestra. For many years before I had heard this disc, however, this work was just a fashionable warhorse I never listened to anymore. I used to own the Heifetz/Reiner, but I got tired of it and of the music itself. Gradually, though, I wondered if there might be a better way to play the piece which presented it as music rather than emphasizing it as a collection of tawdry tunes you've heard a million times. The wind parts seemed important for their timbre, for example, but it seemed no one focused on them. No one, that is, until I heard this recording, the reviews of which seemed to describe a performance of exactly the sort I wanted. Think of Mravinsky's classic accounts of Symphonies 4,5,6 with the old Lenningrad Phil on DG with their lean textures and attention to detail. But, you also had to bring out the winds. That is part of the accomplishment of Yakov Kreitzberg, a conductor I'd never heard of, but who was obviously one of the most outstanding young conductors of his generation. (I say "was" because tragically, Mr. Kreitzberg left us in March of 2011. What a loss to music!) Here, this Russian-American master leads his excellent Russian orchestra with great skill and aplomb, presenting this music in a completely convincing way. This is the performance I'd hoped for, because it lets the music speak for itself, and it speaks very eloquently with no need of any exaggeration. We shouldn't forget that Tchiakovsky's favorite was Mozart. The three companion pieces on this disc are all just as well played in performances which simply present them as interesting in themselves as well as for their connection to the concerto. This is particularly true of the last of the three, the lesser-known "Souvenir," which begins with what is apparently the original slow movement of the concerto, and which is very well played by Mr Kreitzberg's piano accompaniment of Ms Fischer's beautifully played part. All of these brief works are more than just fillers, and they're all played as well and as interestingly as the concerto. Finally, the SACD sound is a great plus, and it increases the listener's enjoyment and understanding of music that should be taken much more seriously than as just virtuoso fodder, and Ms Fischer and Yakov Kreitzberg must be congratulated for accomplishing this. This is the recording to live with.

A really great recording of the Violin Concerto. Julia Fischer's playing is fluid and quick. The other pieces are also good, I hadn't heard any of them before but they complement the main piece well.

Once again this was a very successful CD.I felt that both the performance and recording were of a very high standard and would strongly recomend this recording to anyone looking for a superlative modern account of this concerto. The fill ups were also excellent and it is good to be able to choose a main work without duplicating another violin concerto already owned.

Fischer is excellent though i found the recorded sound a little recessed orchestrally and the conducting rather po-faced.

Though this is highly rated by BBC Music magazine there are IMO better recordings out there.

I have six versions of Tchaikovsky's breathtaking violin concerto, performed by various artists. Although each one is beautifully and perfectly executed, Julia Fischer's performance blew me away. The passion and sensitivity with which she performs are palpable. If this composition is among your favourites, I highly recommend that you "preview" Fischer's performance on Youtube. You won't be disappointed, and I can almost guarantee that you'll order this one.