There’s a lot of talk in the opera world about singing actors–vocalists who can express deep emotion as well as hit their technical targets–but it’s not often that we discuss the phenomenon of playing actors. But such phenomena do exist, as documented by Ida Haendel on her disc of encores. (It’s notable that the late Australian pianist Geoffrey Parsons often performed with singers in the course of his career, as his sympathetic accompaniment here reflects.) The ground Haendel covers is nicely diverse; sure, there are the expected lollipops, but there are some unusual intrigues as well. One of these, an arrangement of Copland’s Hoe-Down from the ballet Rodeo, is unfortunately awkward, but it’s still an interesting aside.
This 1979 recording highlights the seriously underrecorded Haendel’s trademark attributes: extraordinary technical command and sensitive interpretation. She has detractors who call her playing cold, but certainly that’s not true here (if it ever was). What is striking about this program is how fully Haendel embodies the music’s character, from the curls of Sarasate’s flirty Habanera to the unearthly harmonics of the third of Bartók’s Rumanian Folk Dances. Mendelssohn’s On Wings of Song is warm and rich, and Dvorák’s Songs My Mother Taught Me is lyrical and unmistakably nostalgia-tinged.
The transfers are excellent, and the sonically true balance of the original masters (with the violin slightly forward) has been maintained. My only complaint with Testament’s reissue is that the liner notes in large part are duplicated on another disc reissued simultaneously (Haendel’s Baroque Transcriptions). Surely Testament doesn’t believe that the violinist’s fans won’t want both albums, and who wants to read the same Haendel interview twice?
