I feel compelled to quibble with the Santa Fe listener.
S. Baird | Baton Rouge, LA United States | 03/20/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I had remarked in a previous customer review on this one that Herman Krebbers' performance here makes all the difference to me, and I'll stand by that. But for Santa Fe to claim no individuality for this performance leaves me scratching my head; perplexed that such a stellar performance by this world-class violin virtuoso could be accompanied by such musically adept playing from the Concertgebouw players -- and a tacitly sympathetic conductor, no doubt -- I just wonder how such a synchronicity could be deemed less than individual by any listener.
Of the three performances that reviewer Santa Fe cites, I confess that I know only the Reiner. Personally, I wouldn't call this one less than individual although it has not been a personal favorite of mine. At any rate, I would only care to mention that this new reissue differs in two respects from the earlier version that I own and reviewed elsewhere: it omits the Borodin symphony and it claims to have been remastered again. Of the latter, I would expect that the recording has been compressed more than necessary with this new remaster and may not offer the sound quality of the earlier release."
How to tell if McDonald's makes the best hamburger
Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 02/24/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This review repeats an older one for Kondrashin's Scheherazade in its last reissue; please refer to it for context.
It never fails that a recording generally praised by critics shows up at Amazon as "the best ever." In the case of Kondrashin's widely admired Scheherazade, reviewers echo the same received opinion, and they'd be irked to hear that such opinions are generally worthless. Let's look at hamburgers by analogy. It wouldn't matter if a dozen reviewers agreed that McDondal's made "the best ever" hamburger unless those claims were backed up. Taste is individual, of course, but consensus isn't. To back up a claim about the best hamburger, a taster would have to show some experience with other hamburgers, and hopefully he'd remember some good and bad ones and could describe the difference.
Every review below fails on these counts. Nobody seems to be able to ofrfer comparisons between Kondrashin and, say, Stokowski, Beecham, Karajan, Ansermet, Reiner, Temirkanov, and other acclaimed conductors in this work. Nobody shows much experience or has a long memory for recordings going back to the Fifties and before. Claims are made about "best" playing, sound, and interpretation without basis. I'm happy if a lot of music lovers feel attached to this recording, but I also know certain things:
--"Best" is rarely a valid critical term unless there are only a handful of choices.
--Great Scheherazades exist from Beecham, Stokowski and Reiner. Kondrashin's reading doesn't have Beecham's swagger and elegance, Stokowski's dramatic flair, or Reiner's unparalleled virtuosity of execution.
--Philips' sonics are very good, but to say they are outstanding, one would have to do a side-by-side sampling with RCA's Living Stereo for Reiner, long an audio classic.
I don't feel called on to be this didactic very often, but I try to write reviews on the bais of facts like these. Taking them into account, I'd rank Kondrashin as a fine version, if a bit sober and lacking in individuality. On the other hand, I can see why it's considered one of the top contenders by listeners who desire a straightforward, extremely well played Scheherazade where the conductor doesn't do much interpretative work.
"
Excellent
F. Rupert | 02/04/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Without entering into the back and forth of the other reviewers, I will say I've owned this Scheherzade for years in its original LP version and the CD reincarnation. The warm acoustic and the superlative solo violin work of Herman Krebbers make this a Scherezade you will no doubt enjoy owning. Many, many orchestras have recorded this warhorse and decreeing one version as "best" is absurd. However, for this listener, this recording captures the romance and beauty of the score extremely well."
Track Listings (8) - Disc #1