Re: GG: chaccone

[Melissa M Stewart <stewartm@acsu.buffalo.edu>]

On Tue, 18 Mar 1997, Paul Fawcett wrote:
> I'm 
> also curious to hear which Violin recordings of this piece people favour...It's 
> such a difficult piece that even some of the big names can't really pull it off.
> I think maybe the best I've heard yet is Henryk Szeryng on his 
> DeutschGrammaphone recording of the six partitas/sonatas for solo violin , but > I've really only heard a few performers  One of the reasons that I find this 

Well, I can't speak for everyone, but as a violinist, my favorite version
of the Sonatas and Partitas is Grumiaux.  I own three editions, my three
favorite Bach violinists: Szeryng, Milstein and Artur, and here's my take
on their performances.  While Szeryng's performance is very clean, his
sound is not as warm as either of the other two, leaving the impression of
a very "dry" performance, not terribly emotional.  And unfortunately, the
quality of my usual favorite Milstein's recording is not the greatest, and
he makes a few booboos that seem to have tensed up the rest of his
performance.  I don't think it's his best effort -- see the A minor and E
major concerto recordings for that, my, he's good -- but it's still a fine
job.  But I really think that old Artur got it just right with his
recording of these pieces.  Nice warm sound, just the right rubato...
Well, I'd just go put it on right now, but I only have my 20-yr-old vinyl,
and I haven't found this one on CD -- nor the Milstein concertos, for that
matter.  Anyone from Phillips or EMI out there listening?

Well, that's my two cents worth.
Melissa

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|Melissa M. Stewart			    |  Graduate Student           |
|State University of New York at Buffalo    |  Potential Theorist         |
|stewartm@acsu.buffalo.edu		    |  Hockey Player              |
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