Believe it or not, young people, there was a time when even ordinary folks in places like Cincinnati or Dayton or Toledo could hear great violinists in recital. And by great violinists, I don’t mean today’s boy or girl wonders that come and go like rock stars, but ones who sustained careers over periods of decades and who defined the art of virtuoso violin playing for all time. My great uncle Bob in Cincinnati, an amateur violinist (who made his fortune as a bowling alley salesman) heard them all, and he used to describe in detail his experiences as a young boy hearing Heifetz, Milstein, Zimbalist, and, his favorite, Kreisler. Well, if, like me, you missed these incomparable masters, Pearl offers a chance to hear a little of what the fuss was about: 18 tracks that showcase the talents of the above-mentioned artists as well as those of Francescatti, Stern, Ricci, and Elman. Yes, the featured works are common encore pieces–no major works here–but it’s a real treat to be reminded of what has proved to be the height of an art that surely is being continued, but without the same mystique and degree of personality in the playing.
I’m not usually a fan of “old” recordings with confined, often scratchy sound, but when you hear these performances, it’s amazing how quickly your ear adjusts to whatever the acoustic limitations and just focuses on the music and the playing. Roger Beardsley’s transfers are perfectly adequate, and, from Heifetz’s La Ronde des Lutins (Bazzini) to Ricci’s Burleska (Suk) to Zimbalist’s Carmen Fantasia (Sarasate) to Stern’s Flight of the Bumblebee (Rimsky-Korsakov) we can only marvel at such a collection of never-to-be-heard-again showmanship and artistry. We can be justifiably impressed with Perlman, Shaham, Vengerov, Midori, and Bell, but this recording shows where their inspiration came from. Zimbalist’s Zigeunerweisen (Sarasate) alone is worth the price of the disc.
