Search - Camille Saint-Saens, Manuel de Falla, Enrique Granados :: The Complete Solo Recordings 1929-36

There really were "good old days"

04/11/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you have ever feel empty when listening to modern violinusts you come to appreciate the "good old days" of violinists like Thibaud and Kreisler. I'll be blunt. They knew how to make a portamento and they were not ashamed to do it. Thirty years ago when I was studying the violin with teachers who grew up with models like Kreisler and Thibaud they would give examples of the old style slides and say "we don't do that anymore". Today's soulless playing may be an overreaction to tasteless imitators of Kreisler, Thibaud and their contemporaries. But the baby went out with the bath water and all we have today is a tub with a ring around it. Masterpieces on this set include the Eccles Sonata in G, the Sicilienne by von Paradies, the Faure Berceuse, a transcription of Mozart's "Elvira Madigan", the Vitali Chaconne and more . The slow movement of the Lalo Symphonie Espagnole is a revelation. Young violinists should steep themselves in this sound and then find the old teachers who remember how to draw the bow to obtain this distilled tone and move the hand to connect the notes in such musical ways.But if this music fails to bring a tear to the eye or evoke a gasp of delight then he/she should carefully place his/her violin the its case and take up the electric guitar."

Great French violinist at his best

07/29/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"These 2CDs shows the great French violnist Jacques Thibaud at his best. Thibaud made some wonderful sonatas and chamber music recording in the 1920s with Cortot and Casals. These recordings show that Thibaud was one of the most distinguished violin soloist as well as chamber musician. His interpretations of Saint-Saens and Spanish music of Granados and de Falla are one of the best I heard, and his interpretations of Baroque and Classical short pieces are deliciously alive and utterly lacking in "dry academism." His recording of Symphonie Espagnole was recorded live at later date (1940s)and technically he is not as clean as violinists today, but what an overpoweringly individual performance it is! Thibaud really "owned" this piece, and through his hands the piece becomes something very special. In my opinion, Thibaud was an incomparable charmer of the violin, in the class of Kreisler, and these recordings prove it! Enjoy!"