Sensible programming and freshly minted performances make this Dvorák and Sarasate disc an attractive proposition. Akiko Suwanai, a Japanese virtuoso with an assured technique and a strong interpretive personality, is accompanied by the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Iván Fischer in a recording made in December, 1999 at the Italian Institute, Budapest. The first point that registers here is the fine instrumental detailing and ambient warmth of the recording itself. The results achieved in this auditorium (a regular Naxos recording location) by the Philips team convey a completely unexpected aural impression of the hall’s qualities, earning this CD top rating for sound.
Suwanai’s account of the Dvorák concerto is superior to Kyung-Wha Chung’s EMI recording from Philadelphia (with Muti), though Sarah Chang is due to record the work (also for EMI) in the near future, and might well challenge my ranking of this splendid new version. Suwanai’s reading, never over-rhetorical or over-glamorized, scores highly for its integrity, technical excellence, and fidelity to the score in matters of dynamics and phrasing. The concerto has its structural weaknesses, certainly, but Suwanai and Fischer bring a completely natural feel to the often lumpy transition leading from the opening Allegro into the slow movement. And Suwanai’s rock-solid intonation isn’t phased by the virtuoso flourishes and E-string leaps near the start of the work (which dispenses with the normal orchestral introduction), and she later finds magical lyrical composure with the arrival of the second theme. The finale, its feisty furiant rhythms effectively under-pointed by Fischer’s accompaniment, strides forward boldly, yet with disciplined and noticeably more measured playing from Suwanai. The contrast here with Kyung-Wha Chung’s mercurial, wanton, but less musically reliable account couldn’t be greater.
Chung and Josef Suk (in his recording for Supraphon) both offered the Romance for violin and orchestra as the logical coupling. Salvatore Accardo’s account on Philips Silver Line (one his best concerto recordings) paired the Dvorák concerto with that by Sibelius, but Suwanai’s nicely turned out Sarasate is a delight, even if her Carmen Fantasy never quite equals Perlman’s legendary bravura in his famous EMI rendition with Lawrence Foster and the Royal Philharmonic. If you want a sensibly reasoned and admirably played recording of the Dvorák in demonstration sound, Suwanai’s is an extremely good bet. Lastly, collectors on a tight budget won’t be disappointed by Ilya Kaler’s Naxos performance, also including the Romance; but sonically its no match for the new Philips issue.
