Violin Concertos

Amazon.ca This recording of Ilya Gringolts performing concertos by Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich is a frustrating release. It sets out to provide an accommodating and supportive platform for a superb young violinist, but is ultimately so accommodating that it fails him, leaving the listener with a disc of fabulously eloquent and supple solo playing set against an orchestra of disappointing tameness. The problem is Itzhak Perlman who, as a soloist, knows the Tchaikovsky from the inside (his 1970s EMI recording with Ormandy and the Philadelphia is a classic) but fails to drop the soloist's perspective in his reincarnation as a conductor. Add to this the fact that he is Gringolts' teacher, and you get a reading so bent double with subservience to the soloist that there's nothing left to energise or interest the other 70-odd musicians in the studio. The pace is lacklustre, the playing under-powered and not assisted by a boxy sound. The Shostakovich (No. 1) feels more balanced as an undertaking and works better. But it doesn't compensate enough to make a first-choice disc, which is a pity, because Gringolts is a special talent. Barely 20 and a new recruit to the ubiquitous, all-conquering Russo-Jewish fiddle mafia, he plays with more poetry than Vengerov, more maverick individuality than Repin and more engagement than Znaider. He surely has a big career ahead of him--he just needs a conductor (and an orchestra) prepared to treat him like a grown-up. No kid gloves. No holding back. --Michael Whit