Vieuxtemps: Violin Concertos Nos 4 & 5 (with works by Saint-Saens, Sarasate & Waxman) (Rec 1935-1947)

"Heifetz looms large in 2001, the centennial of his birth. An online auction house sold off a cache of Heifetz memorabilia in February, including the alligator briefcase he used to carry his music; next month, the Montreal Chamber Music Festival will devote two weeks of concerts, repertoire and films to Heifetz.

"And now in record stores on the budget-priced Naxos label are seven CDs containing many of the violinist's early concerto recordings and shorter pieces supported by some of the foremost conductors of the 20th century: Arturo Toscanini, John Barbirolli, Thomas Beecham and Pierre Monteux among them....

"The Naxos discs include almost none of the short, light works - what the critic Virgil Thomson called "silk underwear music" - that earned Heifetz some critical derision. He also was sometimes called cold and machinelike. ...

"To be sure, there's considerable charisma in the Vieuxtemps Concerto No. 4, one of the highlights of the Naxos CDs and a performance of staggering beauty. This kind of radiant playing invites the notion that Heifetz was best in light music.

"But then how does one explain Heifetz's refined, shapely reading of the Beethoven Violin Concerto, made in 1940 with Toscanini at the podium? The conductor surely was an influence, because the performance is much better structured than the violinist's later version with Charles Munch.

"Not surprisingly, Heifetz's Mozart - here it's the Concertos No. 4 and 5 - sounds dated, almost mannered. His style might have been his own, but that style was grounded in a Romantic sensibility, which isn't true of most violinists today. That's why so much of Heifetz on disc, at least when he was playing material congenial to him, is to be cherished.

"He's wonderful, for example, on the 1939 neo-Romantic concerto by William Walton, on the Sibelius violin concerto and even in the odd concerto of 1943 by Louis Gruenberg."
- Star-Tribune (Michael Anthony) May 20, 2001

"Few violinists can even begin to approach Heifetz in the great Romantic showpieces for which he set formidable standards of technique, temperament, and taste. Henri Vieuxtemps' Fourth and Fifth Concertos are not just vehicles for star fiddlers, they're interesting works from the standpoint of form and orchestration whose four-movement game plans detoured from the three-movement concerto norm. Heifetz's lightening runs and coiled lyricism in Franz Waxman's Carmen Fantasy will give you as many goose bumps as the two Saint-Saëns works and Sarasate's delicious, show-offy Zigeunerweisen. While the transfers don't have the full dynamic range of RCA's restorations from prime source material, Mark Obert-Thorn's careful, honest remastering is as good as you can get from clean commercial 78 rpm pressings."
- ClassicsToday.com (Jed Distler) March 6, 2001