Search - Haendel, Mewton-Wood, Kotowska :: Works for Violin & Piano

Works for Violin & Piano
Haendel, Mewton-Wood, Kotowska
Works for Violin & Piano
Genres: Dance & Electronic, Classical
 
  •  Track Listings (14) - Disc #1
  •  Track Listings (24) - Disc #2

The new CD was recorded and issued to celebrate the 75th birthday of a legendary violinist who has never become a mainstream superstar. As Haendel's early recordings--like the ones on the bonus CD included here, or the con...  more »

     
2

Larger Image

CD Details

All Artists: Haendel, Mewton-Wood, Kotowska, Newton
Title: Works for Violin & Piano
Members Wishing: 0
Total Copies: 0
Label: Decca
Original Release Date: 1/1/1940
Re-Release Date: 6/13/2000
Album Type: Original recording remastered
Genres: Dance & Electronic, Classical
Styles: Opera & Classical Vocal, Chamber Music, Forms & Genres, Concertos, Historical Periods, Classical (c.1770-1830), Instruments, Strings
Number of Discs: 2
SwapaCD Credits: 2
UPC: 028945548821

Synopsis

Amazon.com
The new CD was recorded and issued to celebrate the 75th birthday of a legendary violinist who has never become a mainstream superstar. As Haendel's early recordings--like the ones on the bonus CD included here, or the concerto recordings on Testament--demonstrate, she has long been a patrician interpreter of the highest musical and technical standards. In fact, she may be a shade too patrician for some of the repertoire on this recording. With Ashkenazy in uncommonly vigorous and assertive form, Haendel, although always in command of the music and her instrument, doesn't play these mostly folk-based Eastern European showpieces with the kind of flair they invite. She is always sensible and never exactly sleepy, but her Enescu, for example, is much more polite than Menuhin's. The bonus CD, though, despite showing its age and mild lingering effects of Decca's noisy 78s pressings, gives us a more powerful, exciting Haendel, and it's worth more than the asking price of the set. --Leslie Gerber

Similarly Requested CDs

 

CD Reviews

Frolicking with Ida and Vladimir
Brian Forst | Reston, VA United States | 08/04/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)

"Nearly a generation before Glenn Gould's towering 1955 recording of the Goldberg variations, Ida Haendel had recorded Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Kreisler and others on Decca. About a generation after Gould's 1982 swansong reprise of the Goldbergs, Ida Haendel was still firing on all eight cylinders (or was it four? Her birth year is variously reported as 1928 and 1924). This 2-CD set captures important fragments from both the early and more recent stages of this remarkable career.Ida Haendel was wisked out of Poland by her parents in 1939, landed in London, studied with Carl Flesch and Henryk Szering and others, and by Henry Roth's count produced 83 phonograph records. On the first disk here, Ms. Haendel is graciously accompanied by superstar Vladimir Ashkenazy, who is especially exuberant and in top form technically as well. The two quite obviously had a fine old time frolicking together through Eastern European music by Enescu, Bartok and Szymanowski. The second disk, an extraordinary bonus, is a bit scratchy at times, but Haendel's youthful virtuousity is clearly revealed through the haze."
A sensation nonetheless
BLee | HK | 12/07/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)

"Dependent upon what "mainstream" in the editorial review stands for - if that means Elman, Oistrakh, Perlman: the most selling violinists in the biggest market, Haendel is indeed off the mainstream. Otherwise, the more selling, the more they are off the mainstream instead, as most of the cases turn out to be. But Haendel in this case did make it clear that she herself was not happy with the record. The causes? There are quite a number of them. Ashkenazy is a celebrity and he is selling. But is he the right partner for her for this repertiore? Could Eschenbach or even Zimmermann be a better choice? Would we have something quite different if this record comes out a decade or two ( or even three) earlier...? In any event, not many of us are equally familiar with these pieces and so to many of us, they are fresh and appealing like nothing else. Haendel is still deservingly the Queen of the Violin, and hopefully Ashkensazy is as selling as ever. Recommended for those who relish either Eastern Europe music or the drama and lyricism of Haendel's playing, or both."