It’s very good to see Pinchas Zukerman back on disc in music he clearly enjoys playing and conducting. He seduces with a sweet violin in The Lark Ascending and Salut d’amour, and then takes up the viola for In Moonlight (a.k.a. the slow interlude from In the South). At no point do you ever sense that the orchestra lacks direction, or that Zukerman’s attention to his instrument wavers while attending to the larger ensemble. The performances are a pleasure from start to finish.
As a conductor, Zukerman does best in the two Elgar pieces: the charming and songful Serenade, and a taut, passionate Introduction and Allegro. In the latter, especially, he draws some splendidly rich string sonority from the Royal Philharmonic. His reading of the Tallis Fantasia, though, is a bit cool, lacking the intensity that Vaughan Williams wrote into the climaxes. It’s certainly not bad, but next to Barbirolli or Silvestri (both on EMI), this is surely too tame.
Indeed, this release clearly recalls Barbirolli’s classic disc of English string music for EMI. You get most of the same stuff on that earlier issue, with Delius’ Brigg Fair instead of The Lark, and that collection remains an essential item. But this is still a very pleasurable listen, and on the whole quite recommendable.
