For Ida Haendel fans, an opportunity to hear her in action is an opportunity to be savored, and this recent reissue (along with “Popular Encores”, also on Testament and also featuring Geoffrey Parsons) is an event for violin lovers. You might argue that the repertoire presented here is, with the possible exception of the Tartini, less musically compelling than her other recordings; it’s a bit much to hear all these works back-to-back. But with Haendel’s incredibly assured tone and technical mastery, she could perform the instrumental equivalent of the singer’s telephone book and still entrance listeners.
Here, the beauty is often found in Haendel’s details, including a firm but not overly aggressive bowing technique and phrasing that sings–and of course Haendel possesses a justly famous command of intonation. It’s these capacities that make the Corelli, Nardini, and Vitali pieces much more than the sum of their parts, even in flashy arrangements by Kreisler, Carl Flesch, and Ferdinand David. Even so, most listeners naturally will gravitate toward Tartini’s sonata, dubbed “The Devil’s Trill” specifically for a fiendishly difficult trill in the last movement (though the rest of the piece isn’t terribly simple either, especially in Kreisler’s arrangement). It’s in this piece that Haendel really gets to dig in, and she dispatches each flourish with great aplomb. As on “Popular Encores”, Parsons proves himself to be an acutely sensitive accompanist. The sound of the original 1977 recording is well-placed, and the remastering is judicious. [11/4/2002]
