For speed, dead-on accuracy, heated intensity, and blemish-free tone control in all registers, Jascha Heifetz’s 1955 Beethoven Concerto with Charles Munch refuses to yield the throne after ruling for nearly half a century. There’s more mystery, harmonic tension, and introspective poetry to this score than Heifetz suggests, but you already know that. What you don’t know is that the original two-channel master sounds better in RCA’s SACD manifestation than in previous formats, even when playing the disc on a conventional audio CD unit. While the violin dominates in the mix, and the dynamic range is rather limited and claustrophobic by today’s audiophile standards (indeed, by RCA’s 1950s standards!), you can hear that Munch is anything but a soloist’s doormat. Notice the care with which he shapes the slow movement’s string pizzicatos, and the cutting clarity of the brass.
Hearing the Heifetz/Munch 1959 Mendelssohn concerto spread across three channels results in a more democratic soloist/orchestra balance than the fiddle-dominated two-channel mixdown. As a result, the glorious Boston woodwinds really come into their own and interact with Heifetz rather than function as musical wallpaper. In fact, the power, virility, and rhythmic definition Munch wrings from the orchestra matches Heifetz’s staggering virtuosity at every turn. To say this disc is great is like saying Niagara Falls is wet. Just make sure that when it’s over you cool down and get your heart rate back to normal. [10/20/2004]
