Founder and leader of the Végh Quartet for 40 years, Sándor Végh also excelled as a solo violinist and as a conductor who delivered insightful...

Founder and leader of the Végh Quartet for 40 years, Sándor Végh also excelled as a solo violinist and as a conductor who delivered insightful performances of music ranging from Haydn and Mozart to Bartók and Stravinsky. This Orfeo release is drawn from a pair of 1986 concerts at the Salzburg Festival with the Camerata Academica Salzburg, and it's all the more valuable because discs of Végh's conducting are sparsely available. The then-74-year-old Végh was a stylistic exemplar of the days when a relaxed warmth enveloped interpretations that nonetheless had interpretive rectitude, sufficient forward motion, and energy.

Such a balance is struck in a lovely rendition of Mozart's Serenata notturna and again in the teenaged Mendelssohn's String Symphony No. 9, where the opening Grave is weighty without being inflated, the Andante noble, and the Trio of the zippy Scherzo soulful. The orchestra is responsive, though a touch of thinness occasionally afflicts the violins. The slow, humid beginning of the Dvorák String Serenade gently reveals the gorgeous melody opening like a blossoming flower. With a spirited Scherzo, a warm Larghetto, and a finale bursting with energy, this is a performance to keep returning to. Wolf's Italian Serenade, most likely an encore at a concert several days earlier, has plenty of drive but also contains passages of suspect pitch.

It can be easy to overlook a disc of a chamber orchestra playing serenades, but these are important works and Végh's humane conducting is timeless. The sound is good stereo, with adequate dynamics and presence. The audience contributes its share of coughs, but they're minimal enough. Think of them as just adding to the feel of being at the concert, like the snippets of applause and the orchestra's tuning adjustments between movements of the Mendelssohn.

--Dan Davis, ClassicsToday.com