A ddizzying Bartok Second Cto. with great flair
Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 05/07/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"For a long time I had few associations with Thomas Zehetmair, a native Salzburger who also leads his own string quartet and conducts the Northern Sinfonia in Britain. It was my loss, as this riveting, rapturous CD demonstrates. With dizzying virtuosity, elan, and variety, Zehetmair transforms the great Bartok Cto. #2 for violin. The work is so quicksilver that it demands hair-trigger changes of mood, and Bartok's violin writing is so quirky and personal that it, too, demands real imagination. Zehetmair has everything the piece needs. In addition, the recording is of demonstration quality, especially when it comes to the violin itself, which is rendered with amazing vitality. Ivan Fischer's core strength is Bartok, of course -- here he doesn't rest on his laurels. The orchestral part is symphonic in scope,and he realizes its sweep and kaleidoscopic variety. Tempos are faster than normal, the added propulsiveness being used to dramatic effect.
What more can one say? Not many American collectors would look to either Zehetmair or Berlin Classics for a recording that puts Stern and Bernstein or shaham and Boulez in the shade. Yet without a doubt this is a superlative performance."
Zehetmair takes it faster, a bracing alternative
R. Hutchinson | a world ruled by fossil fuels and fossil minds | 12/18/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is a review for the recording by Thomas Zehetmair, the brilliant German violinist, with Ivan Fischer and his Budapest Festival Orchestra on the Berlin Classics label. Zehetmair is fantastic, and Fischer leads the best Hungarian symphony of our time. I previously reviewed a great recording of the Bartók Violin Concerto No. 2 with Gil Shaham, Boulez and the CSO, and that's the version I've been listening to for years. This alternative is a revelation -- Shaham/Boulez/CSO is over 40 minutes long, while Zehetmair/Fischer/BFO is just over 35 minutes. It sounds very fast to me, but as it turns out Bartok's own timing marks indicate just 32 minutes. Shaham makes the work sound more Romantic by comparison, while this Zehetmair interpretation is more folk-inflected, with the violin leaping and cavorting very brightly. Shaham has a big, round tone, reminiscent of David Oistrakh, while Zehetmair's sound is sharper. DG's sound for Shaham/Boulez/CSO is much better, deeper and richer, while this Berlin Classics recording by comparison is thin. But while I still love the Shaham recording, I am glad to have this faster, sharper rendition by Zehetmair as well. (This disc has just been reissued by Berlin Classics.)
While the DG disc includes Bartok's Rhapsodies for Violin & Orchestra 1 & 2, this Berlin Classics disc includes instead the posthumously numbered Concerto for Violin & Orchestra No. 1, an early work. Zehetmair (b. 1961) was 34 when he recorded these works in 1995, while Gil Shaham (b. 1971) was 27 when he recorded with Boulez & the CSO in 1998. There are currently recordings available by 21 violinists (according to Arkiv Music), but the Shaham and Zehetmair performances are two of the best."
