In the early days of CD, RCA issued the Beethoven and Brahms Violin Concertos on one disc, a compilation that on the surface seemed to be an astonishing achievement. But the achievement actually was in Jascha Heifetz’s ability to dispatch both works in such short order (total time for both around 72 minutes, while Itzhak Perlman’s contemporaneous releases on two separate CDs totaled 87 minutes). You could not help but marvel at Heifetz’s speed, agility, and astonishingly dead-on accuracy of pitch and attack, and for many, his recordings remain the ultimate for these works. But there are other ways to play these two masterpieces, best exemplified in the more human-scaled performances of Perlman, Mutter, Milstein, and now, Aaron Rosand.
Rosand himself is no slouch when it comes to tempo (his total timing is only five minutes longer than Heifetz’s), and he doesn’t skimp on his own rapid-fire effects. But there’s also a discernable vulnerability in Rosand’s tone that contrasts with his confidence in the more bravura passages of both works. Of the two concertos, it’s the Beethoven that naturally comes off the more masculine, yet this is combined with a pure and noble sense of beauty. In the Brahms this beauty becomes warmly feminine and avoids the macho posturing of Anne-Sophie Mutter in her very aggressive performance with Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic. Rosand is not graced with nearly so powerful and sonorous orchestral accompaniments–the Monte Carlo Philharmonic under Derrick Inouye is merely adequate, and Vox’s recording seems to place the orchestra behind a veil. Nevertheless, Rosand fans have been given a special treat in this generous release.
