Word: sibelius
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...have the somewhat dubious distinction of owning the entire discography of Midori on compact disc, from Bartok to her two recital collections. Naturally, for completion's sake, I picked up her latest offering on Sony Classical--a coupling of the Sibelius violin concerto and Max Bruch's Scottish Fantasy, Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra providing the accompaniment...
There is never any question about her technical facility in either the Sibelius or the Bruch, for she is arguably the finest technician of her generation, but she remains inexplicably aloof from both of them. The Sibelius is a tepid performance at best-tempi cluster around a comfortable median, and the soul is left wanting, in spite of flawless execution. There is absolutely no magic from her first entrance in the Sibelius, and her tone simpers more than it captivates. During the most dramatic moments of the piece, one wonders whether she is capable of producing anything outside...
...performance was technically close to perfect. Though his tone lacked some of the strength of the century's great violinists, Lin added just the right amount of time and accentuation to his playing. His level of expressiveness, while it sometimes falls short in concerti by late Romantics like Sibelius and Saint-Saens, matches the temper of Classical works precisely...
...Sibelius dressed in a black shirt and pants, canary yellow jacket and yellowish how tie. A former student of David Oistrakh. Kremer uncharacteristically let his innovation stop with his wardrobe. Instead of inserting strains of modern composers' work, as he has with cadenzas by Schnitke and Robert Levin '68, he stuck to Sibelius's own cadenzas...
...Sibelius concerto's first movement consists of a series of impressive solo passages interspersed with cascading tuttis and fine wind entrances. As the orchestra began, its glistening harmonics were accompanied by a low roll of thunder; it was raining hard by the third movement. Kremer played the beginning of the first lick a bit raggedly but was well on target by the time he handed the melodic line over to the orchestra. His second solo passage came off perfectly, with brilliantly intoned harmonizations...