Henryk Szeryng's robust and resonant violin tone at times takes on a dark quality more like a viola--quite different from the bright sound of Heifetz. The result is a certain weighty seriousness to Szeryng's playing, even in the dancing finales of both works. Of the two performances, the Khachaturian is the more memorable, as Szeryng revels in the music's ethnic coloring and exotic sensuality--sounding very much the folk fiddler in the first-movement cadenza, and displaying stunning rhythmic and tonal acuity throughout.

Though Szeryng adopts a more aristocratic stance in the Brahms, he sacrifices none of his flair, masterfully negotiating Brahms' challenging double-stops while rendering the composer's lovely melodies with great feeling. Szeryng's fashioning of the standard Joachim cadenza is so artful that it sounds pleasingly fresh, not at all the staid warhorse it has become today. Antal Doráti skillfully conducts both scores, displaying impressive alacrity in the Khachaturian, while the London Symphony offers its usual first-rate playing. The sound perspective favors Szeryng, and while soloist and instruments have satisfying presence overall, we hear a bit more opaqueness and congestion at the tuttis than we expect from the finest Mercury Living Presence recordings. Nonetheless, this is a worthy release, newly available "on-demand" from Arkivmusic.com. [2/8/2007]

--Victor Carr Jr