It is good to have Pinchas Zukerman returning to the Beethoven Violin Concerto. It was in the late 1970s that he made his earlier DG recording with Daniel Barenboim and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a fine spacious reading, which I have unfortunately not had a chance to hear on CD format. The comparison with the LP brings home an extra depth in the new reading. If in the earlier version the characteristic warmth of Zukerman's tone marked the whole performance, this one brings greater emphasis on purity and refinement. The violin sound has less fat on it, and in this work that helps to convey an extra inner intensity. Such passages as the coda of the first movement are the more poignant in their seeming simplicity of expression, hushed to an extreme pianissimo. Zukerman is also stricter with himself over maintaining steady speeds, again purifying his concept. The result may be more disciplined, but it is never too rigid, with even the opening of the finale on the main rondo theme given a sense of gentle communing, not as outward-going as before. The recording helps, with the solo violin less forwardly balanced, and though the playing of the tuttis fails to match the soloist in intensity, the orchestra comes alive the moment he enters.

-- Edward Greenfield, Gramophone [11/1992]
reviewing the Violin Concerto, originally released as RCA 61219

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Collegium Aureum records are valuable as practical musicology, and it is irrelevant to say you prefer your Beethoven on modern instruments; this disc is a supplement, not a takeover bid. Badura-Skoda, who presumably directs the small band from the keyboard, plays a Broadwood Grand of 1816 and you soon get used to its tinny quality. Franzjosef Maier has his marvellous unmodernized Guarnerius of 1726, and like the excellent cellist he eschews vibrato. It is sometimes thought that when the balance fails in Beethoven the fault lies with our modern instruments but as this record shows this is not necessarily the case. Semiquavers in the bass of orchestral tuttis are still inaudible (as in the first climax of the first movement) and in the development when the soloists are all playing loud triplet quavers you can't hear the thematic fragments on the woodwind; you never can, and I suppose Beethoven is to blame. Old instruments can create as many problems as hey solve. This Broadwood Grand does not smother as much detail on other instruments as a modern piano, but it does not impinge on our consciousness as it should in its very first entry. One bonus is the sot/a race effect Beethoven asks for in the finale (modern instruments are never so self-effacing) and another is the proper sound of a Beethoven-period sustaining pedal being held through the last three bars. There is some very good playing from all three soloists in this finale. I suspected a slightly closer microphone was being used in the cadenza, but in general they have been under-emphasized by the recording engineers to help produce an early nineteenth-century sound. The whole disc provides a most rewarding experience.

-- Gramophone [8/1978]
reviewing the original LP release of the Triple Concerto

BERLIOZ: L'ENFANCE DU CHRIST,

BEETHOVEN: SYMPHONIES NOS 1 &

BEETHOVEN: SYMPHONY NO 3 LEIN

Barry Douglas in the Waldstein and Appassionata, so far from being youthfully impetuous, gives unusually clean-cut readings, crisply controlled. If one misses [a] of fantasy and fire..., Douglas's more measured readings are always taut and alert, never dull or cautious-sounding. The recording, made in Watford Town Hall, is arguably the finest of all, with warm-toned legato for the second subject melody and the central Andante in the Appassionata. In the first movement of Op. 90 Douglas is fresh and open, and his most controversial reading comes in the lyrical Rondo which follows, where in observing the instruction that it should be played not too fast and in a songful way, he adopts an unusually spacious speed... I would welcome more fire in all these works, but Douglas's readings have a strength and command that will not disappoint anyone who wants this coupling.

-- Edward Greenfield, Gramophone [6/1994]

This title is a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese.

Selections recorded September 27-October 2, 1993, July 4-8 1994, and December 6-8, 1994.

Pinchas Zukerman, Jos‚ Luis Garcia (in D minor concerto); English Chamber Orchestra. RCA Red Seal 60718-2-RC [with Concerto in G minor, BWV 1056] (recorded 1990)

Pinchas Zukerman’s accounts are appealing for their emphasis on line and phrasing, and for their restraint. They are intelligently drawn, though a little drawn out (and Russianized, with un-idiomatic slides) in some of the slow tempos; there is also a tendency to hasten a little in the Allegros. But most of the time, in spite of his urge to keep a high expressive profile, Zukerman is able to scale down his sound and gestures to fit the music. The Largo of the D minor concerto is especially lovely. The recording is an excellent one, with the soloists ever so slightly forward. – Ted Libbey, author of The NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection.

*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

BEETHOVEN: PIANO CONCERTO NO 3

The partnership between James Galway and Monica Huggett, playing at modern pitch, may raise the odd eyebrow, but it is one that contributes strongly to the excellence of this recording: her tone lacks something of its usual warmth but the lovely phrasing is much in evidence, and their musical minds meet on the best of terms. Galway has adapted well to baroque style, with which his colleagues are well acquainted, and his wife, making her debut on record, is neither overawed nor outshone in BWV 1039. In BWV 1013 Galway plays the second-half repeat only in the Sarabande, which he takes very slowly indeed, though there is ample playing time for those in the other movements. Philip Moll rises to proper prominence in BWV 1032 but for most of the rest it requires acute hearing to detect his presence, though happily not that of Sarah Cunningham. However, the disc is very recommendable to anyone who doesn't insist on period instruments.

-- Gramophone [8/1997]

Alicia de Larrocha's Beethoven is 'central' in the most constructive sense of that term—in other words, moderately paced, warm-hearted, cleanfingered and free of attention-seeking mannerisms. Tilson Thomas reflects her comparatively romantic bias—this isn't quite the superfine Beethoven of his ECO symphony cycle—and has the LSO support her with poise and propriety. The Sonata is equally composed, though here de Larrocha traces some interesting contrapuntal detail (at the beginning of the Andante, for example).

-- Gramophone [12/1993]
reviewing these performances included as part of RCA 61675

Claudio Abbado's collection of Rossini overtures is flecked with moments of special illumination... With Abbado, the difficult to manage Il Turco in Italia is a rare treat, Tancredi, in Philip Gossett's new revision, is a tour deforce and the liquid-toned cellos at the start of Guillaume Tell are nothing short of miraculous. Abbado's Scala di seta, too, wings into life, sweet and silken, like feathered Mercury.

-- Gramophone [8/1979, reviewing the LP release of the Rossini overtures]

Track Listing
1. Hey, Pretty Baby
2. Seventh Avenue Express
3. Walking Slow Behind You
4. Mister Roberts' Roost
5. Don't You Want a Man Like Me
6. South
7. You Call Yourself a Jungle King (I Found Out You Ain't a Doggone Thing)
8. Sophisticated Swing
9. House Rent Boogie
10. Basie's Basement
11. Brand New Wagon

Personnel includes: Count Basie (piano); Jimmy Rushing (vocals); Preston Love, Rudy Rutherford, C.Q. Price, Earl Warren (alto saxophone); Paul Gonsalves, Buddy Tate (tenor saxophone); Jack Washington (baritone saxophone); Ed Lewis, Snooky Young, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Clark Terry, Jimmy Nottingham, Gerald Wilson (trumpet); Bill Johnson, Ted Donnelly, George Matthews, Eli Robinson, George Washington (trombone); Freddie Green (guitar); Walter Page (bass); Jo Jones, Butch Ballard (drums).

Recorded between January 3 and December 12, 1947.

But for the fact that it only has 11 tracks, this mid-priced compilation (not to be confused with the identically titled Bluebird collection covering Basie's early-'30s recordings with the Bennie Moten band) could easily get the highest rating. And this could be the place to start for any rock fans wondering what Basie was about, at least some of the time. This disc shows Basie and company (especially singer Jimmy Rushing) working in an R&B mode, doing such songs as Willie Dixon's "You Call Yourself the Jungle King (I Found Out You Ain't a Doggone Thing)," "Hey, Pretty Baby," "Brand New Wagon," and "Walking Slow Behind You." Rushing and the band sound like they're pushing toward Chess Records' turf. And the astonishing thing is that they pull it off -- if these records had sold in any serious number, Basie and Rushing might have had a whole second career in R&B, right up there with Big Joe Turner. There's a minimum of annotation, and not all of the sound is quite perfect -- amazingly, the 1991 remastered "Basie's Basement" featured here has a click or two in evidence, for which there's no excuse. But the sound quality everywhere else is pretty much beyond reproach, and there's also one number here, "Mister Roberts' Roost," a laidback instrumental prominently featuring Basie's piano, that's otherwise unavailable.

Just when you thought you'd heard it all, along comes Nikolaus Harnoncourt to teach you a thing or two. Now as we all know, there are two Harnoncourts, one brilliant and one weird. This recording features the brilliant one. He finds textural details in the Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, particularly from the harp in the second and fourth movements, that will amaze you. Of course there's a price for this luxurious detail: with the happy exception of the dynamic and driving second movement, the remaining three movements move at a pace well below the composer's suggested timings. In the opening fugue and nocturnal third movement this hardly matters, but the finale sounds just a bit underpowered, even though its later stages contain magical moments.

No such reservations concern the performance of the Divertimento, which opens with scorching accents and a driving intensity that carries all before it. Once again the central slow movement is a marvel of texture and gentle gradations of tone and timbre, while the earthy finale recaptures the vivacity of the opening movement. There is no finer performance of this piece available. The Chamber Orchestra of Europe plays both works as if its collective life depended on it, and taken as a whole this excellently recorded disc further confirms Harnoncourt's claim to be considered one of today's podium greats. Not to be missed.

– David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com