COMPOSERS: Mozart
LABELS: DG Galleria
WORKS: Violin Concerto No. 5 in A, K219; Sinfonia concertante in E flat, K364
PERFORMER: Gidon Kremer (violin), Kim Kashkashian (viola)Vienna PO/Nikolaus Harnoncourt
CATALOGUE NO: 429 606-2 DDD (1984/88)
Gidon Kremer does not sound happy on this disc. His tone is thin and wavery, his tempi uncertain. He wants to put his stamp on affairs but ends up sounding mannered. The music really doesn’t need his idiosyncratic pauses and accents – particularly intrusive in the A major concerto’s Adagio – nor a string of unnecessary rubatos in which Harnoncourt too is implicated. Kashkashian exerts an improving influence with a lush fluency in the Sinfonia concertante which inspires his partner to some effective duo work. The Vienna PO are quietly masterful and responsive, but Kremer on this disc is not their equal. Christopher Wood
Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 5 in A, K219; Sinfonia concertante in E flat, K364
Gidon Kremer does not sound happy on this disc. His tone is thin and wavery, his tempi uncertain. He wants to put his stamp on affairs but ends up sounding mannered. The music really doesn’t need his idiosyncratic pauses and accents – particularly intrusive in the A major concerto’s Adagio – nor a string of unnecessary rubatos in which Harnoncourt too is implicated. Kashkashian exerts an improving influence with a lush fluency in the Sinfonia concertante which inspires his partner to some effective duo work.
Our rating
3
Published: January 20, 2012 at 3:15 pm