Pinchas Zukerman / Midori, Bach - Vivaldi. West German Philips CD 416 389-2

ORIGIN: West Germany.

LABEL: Philips.

CONDITION OF INSERTS: EX+.

CONDITION OF CD: NM-.

CONDITION OF JEWEL CASE: EX.

CD GRADING DEFINITIONS:

MINT: Never opened, sealed.

NM: Opened, appears unplayed.

EX: A few very light surface marks.

A plus or minus (+ or -) denotes slightly better or slightly less than a grade.

These are all good, stylish performances, with sometimes rich string sound set off by a very reasonably audible and usually very well-judged harpsichord contribution. Also with a good quality of recording, they can be confidently recommended to those listeners who wish simply, and entirely sensibly, to enjoy the music.

Yet it is difficult (or made difficult) to take such a detached, innocent view of what is happening if Midori's publicity has worked, and she is thought of primarily as the girl who, with two breakages in succession, needed no less than three E-strings (hitched to three different instruments) to complete a live performance, with the composer conducting, of the Bernstein Serenade. Rejecting, as being silly, the solution that she obviously used E-strings worn to near destruction when playing in public, I fancied that as an alternative she might be reverting from today's steel E to the older gut string. The fancy was supported to some extent by the quality of her tone in that register; but no: it has been definitely stated that her own E was not merely steel, but actually steel reinforced by gold-planting. So, a chance misfortune; for the accidents (which she is said to have faced up to calmly) have certainly given her name the prominence which it much more certainly deserves simply on the quality of her playing. For a 14-year-old it is stupefyingly good; indeed, in the two double violin concertos she plays with Zukerman on pretty equal terms. This is an accomplishment restricted, you might say, to only a very few 14-year-olds, girls and boys, Japanese, European, or anything else.

A final footnote for cataloguers: Vivaldi's RV522 Double Violin Concerto used to be known (in the days when at least part of Vivaldi's numbering was comprehensible!) as No. 8 of Op. 8, L'estro armonico.'

Gramophone [12/1986]