Christian Ferras plays with a sweet, flexible, strongly girded tone. He ferociously attacks the music’s many wide interval leaps and double-stops, never sacrificing pure intonation in the process. This is especially so in the difficult Kreisler cadenza (a refreshing choice), where the violinist faces considerable technical challenges. Ferras, with his amazing control and powerful dynamics, is noticeably warmer than Anne-Sophie Mutter, who comes off as more blatantly aggressive in her own recording with Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic. In both recordings Karajan maintains relatively quick tempos throughout, an asset in this piece, and he cultivates a lush orchestral sound, especially in the strings. This earlier recording, made in the Jesus Christus Kirche, has more space around the orchestra, resulting in a more natural sound with greater dynamic range than the later digital production.
Ferras suffers from a piano-prominent recording balance in the Violin Sonata No. 1 that robs his playing of some of its bite, making his interpretation sound overly genteel, especially when compared to Joseph Suk’s solid-toned and tightly phrased rendition with Julius Katchen. Ferras seems more concerned with maintaining a beautiful singing quality than maintaining dramatic discourse. While his approach is soothing, Suk and Katchen’s greater energy and intensity makes their recording (all three sonatas on a single Decca Legends disc) the one to own.
