Itzhak Perlman (violin)
The Warner Classics Edition
Complete Recordings on EMI Classics, Teldec, Erato and Warner Classics
rec. 1971-2016
Warner Classics 2173261993 [78 CDs]
When Itzhak Perlman was 70, a huge slab of a release, the size of two house bricks, was issued called ‘The Complete Warner Recordings’. It contained 77 CDs drawn over three decades from his EMI, Erato and Teldec legacies with each album repackaged in miniaturised slipcases, with its own booklet which featured the original jacket artwork and notes. A 96-page book accompanied the edifice with rare photographs, interviews, and an annotated discography. A decade on and the greatest violinist of his generation turns 80 and the whole thing returns, half the size – it’s now just one house brick in size – but lacking the sumptuous allure of the earlier box. There’s a seven-page essay, lots of photographs, and a work list reference that takes you to the relevant numbered CD in the box. The discs have shrunk too – they’re no longer slipcases – and with the shrinkage the original artwork and liner notes have also gone. Without being ungrateful, it’s a par-for-the-course box for our more frugal, pared-to-the-bone times. The one major difference is the one extra disc, CD 78 with Martha Argerich, marked as being unpublished in the book’s annotated discography but since released. You also won’t find the DVD issued in Perlman’s 2-CD klezmer release it wasn’t in the 70th Birthday box either – though the discs are happily still here.
All the repertoire in these boxes was recorded between 1971 and 2016. The discs are presented chronologically, so you start, if you want to, in 1971 and work your way forward. I’ve lost count of the number of Perlman discs I had on LP and then CD. An early favourite was the Bach disc with Zukerman and the English Chamber Orchestra directed by Barenboim and this was soon followed by his immaculate, swashbuckling Paganini Caprices. Shirts were primary-coloured and garish – and trouser belts were big and bold – when Perlman and Previn recorded the Mendelssohn–Bruch coupling in 1972, which he later re-recorded in Amsterdam with Bernard Haitink. Both men can be seen staring out of their LP sleeve in their Carnaby Street finest. I don’t really feel the same way about their Scott Joplin collaboration but that’s because I’d heard Dick Hyman’s piano recordings made the following year, but they enjoyed a sympathetic working relationship and Bartók No.2 soon followed though inevitably, as this isn’t an Icon series, LP side lengths apply to a box of this kind.
I always preferred his Dvořák Concerto to Stern’s – this was before I encountered other more out-of-the-way interpretations – and he has the appropriate sweet-toned charm to do justice to Kreisler whose music occupied four discs, with Samuel Sanders alongside. His Vivaldi Four Seasons from 1976 self-directed but with Rodney Friend leading the London Philharmonic, was sparkling but, for me, lacked the vitality of the earlier Alan Loveday-Neville Marriner recording (he re-recorded it with the Israel Philharmonic). No complaints about the Bruch disc, pairing the Scottish Fantasy – played in full, unlike Heifetz’s versions – with the Concerto No.2 with Jesús López-Cobos. People always talk nostalgically of ‘wearing out’ their copies but I really did wear out mine, which was so visited by pops, scratches and skips that I had to buy another. It’s a real Perlman classic preferable to his Israel Philharmonic remakes, also in this box.
His collaboration with Giulini in Chicago in the Brahms is admired by most though less so by booklet writer Tully Potter, who’s also not so keen on their Beethoven collaboration. In both cases he prefers Perlman’s live recordings with Barenboim. I’ve always liked the Brahms Double recorded with Rostropovich and Haitink but suspect that his disc of Shostakovich and Glazunov Concertos with Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic has rather crept below the parapet. His Barber Concerto still keeps a resilient hold on the collector’s wallet coupled with Lukas Foss and Bernstein. The album of ‘Student Concertos’ – Oskar Rieding, Friedrich Seitz, Jean-Baptiste Accolay etc – is still delightfully engaging as well as being instructive.
An overview of this kind can hardly hope to detail the depth and breadth of Perlman’s achievement, so I can’t mention his splendid Goldmark Concerto in Pittsburgh with Previn or the nonchalant virtuosity of his Vieuxtemps in Paris with Barenboim, his classic Tchaikovsky with Ormandy and the Philadelphia, or his Sibelius, again from his Pittsburgh-Previn sessions, the two Prokofiev Concertos with Rozhdestvensky or even Khachaturian in Israel with Zubin Mehta.
His duo albums with Zukerman were part of a strong sequence of chamber music discs with players such as Ray Still and Lynn Harrell. He enjoyed playing Oboe Quartets just as much as Classical Trio Sonatas. His encore pieces reflect his ravishing stylistic affinities though opinions will vary on the jazz album with Previn, Jim Hall, Red Mitchell and Shelly Manne – as indeed on those klezmer discs. His enthusiasms were genuine and life-enhancing but how deeply did he really dig into jazz and klezmer? ‘Tradition’ contains familiar Jewish melodies in Dov Seltzer’s arrangements and his album with Placido Domingo is here.
The Bach Solo Sonatas and Partitas remain outstanding whilst the Brahms Sonatas with Ashkenazy, Brahms’ Piano Trios and the complete Beethoven Trios with Harrell and Ashkenazy were also central to his repertoire. The Beethoven String Trios are here. There’s a tribute album to Jascha Heifetz and another that contains ‘Heifetz’ works – Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Concerto No.2 and Ben-Haim’s Concerto.
He wasn’t known for promoting contemporary repertoire but he did promote and record Earl Kim’s and Robert Starer’s Concertos in Boston with Seiji Ozawa. The box also contains examples of Perlman the Narrator in the Carnival of the Animals and as singer in the excerpt from James Levine’s complete 1980 Tosca in which he sang the role of the Jailer alongside such unknowns as Plácido Domingo and Renata Scotto. His bass voice is unexpectedly resonant. He can also be heard conducting Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony efficiently.
He made digital remakes of a number of major concertos, and the box allows the listener the pleasure of comparative listening. He may also come to the conclusion that Perlman’s remakes were not necessarily superior to his first thoughts but the lure of the latest technological developments proved, as ever, irresistible to performers and labels.
The reissue of this box ten years later will be welcomed by those who weren’t able to acquire it at the time. Perlman could hardly be expected to be a master of all repertoires but it’s remarkable just how much of the standard and fringe repertoire he mastered and how frighteningly well. And if you do take the plunge – smiley face alert – you will, of course, need his DG/Decca legacy which is in a 25-CD box.
Jonathan Woolf
Works
Accolay, Jean-Baptiste
Violin Concerto no.1 in A minor
Bach, Johann Sebastian
Concerto for 2 violins in D minor, BWV1043
Concerto for oboe and violin in C minor, BWV1060
Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin (complete), BWV1001-1006
Violin Concerto in D minor, BWV1052
Violin Concerto in G minor, BWV1056
Violin Concerto no.1 in A minor, BWV1041
Violin Concerto no.2 in E major, BWV1042
Violin Sonata no.4 in C minor, BWV1017
Bartok, Bela
Duos (44) for two violins, Sz98
Violin Concerto no.2, Sz112 BB117
Beethoven, Ludwig van
Piano Trios (complete)
Romance no.1 in G major for violin and orchestra, op.40
Romance no.2 in F major for violin and orchestra, op.50
String Trio in C minor, op.9 no.3
String Trio in D major, op.9 no.2
String Trio in E flat major, op.3
String Trio in G major, op.9 no.1
Triple Concerto in C major for piano, violin and cello, op.56
Violin Concerto in D major, op.61
Violin Sonata no.9 in A major, op.47 ‘Kreutzer’
Ben-Haim, Paul
Violin Concerto
Beriot, Charles Auguste de
Scene de Ballet, op.100
Brahms, Johannes
Double Concerto for violin and cello in A minor, op.102
Hungarian Dances (21), WoO1 (trans. Joseph Joachim)
Piano Trio no.1 in B major, op.8
Piano Trio no.2 in C major, op.87
Piano Trio no.3 in C minor, op.101
Scherzo in C minor (F.A.E. Sonata), WoO2
Violin Concerto in D major, op.77
Violin Sonata no.1 in G major, op.78
Violin Sonata no.2 in A major, op.100
Violin Sonata no.3 in D minor, op.108
Bruch, Max
Scottish Fantasy, op.46
Violin Concerto no.1 in G minor, op.26
Violin Concerto no.2 in D minor, op.44
Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Mario
Violin Concerto no.2 ‘The Prophets’
Chausson, Ernest
Poeme, op.25
Conus, Jules
Violin Concerto in E minor
Dvorak, Antonin
Romance in F minor, op.11
Romantic Pieces (4), op.75
Sonatina in G major for violin and piano, op.100
Violin Concerto in A minor, op.53
Franck, Cesar
Violin Sonata in A major
Glazunov, Alexander
Violin Concerto in A minor, op.82
Goldmark, Karl
Violin Concerto no.1 in A minor, op.28
Kim, Earl
Violin Concerto
Korngold, Erich Wolfgang
Violin Concerto in D major, op.35
Mendelssohn, Felix
Violin Concerto in E minor, op.64
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
Adagio and Fugue in C minor, K546
Symphony no.41 in C major, K551 ‘Jupiter’
Violin Concerto no.3 in G major, K216
Paganini, Nicolo
Caprices (24) for solo violin, op.1
Violin Concerto no.1 in D major, op.6
Prokofiev, Sergei
Peter and the Wolf, op.67
Violin Concerto no.1 in D major, op.19
Violin Concerto no.2 in G minor, op.63
Ravel, Maurice
Tzigane
Rieding, Oskar
Violin Concerto in B minor, op.35
Saint-Saens, Camille
Carnival of the Animals
Havanaise, op.83
Introduction and Rondo capriccioso, op.28
Sarasate, Pablo de
Carmen Fantasy, op.25
Zigeunerweisen, op.20
Schumann, Robert
Violin Sonata no.1 in A minor, op.105
Seitz, Friedrich
Schuler-Konzert no.2 op.13
Shostakovich, Dmitri
Violin Concerto no.1 in A minor, op.77
Sibelius, Jean
Violin Concerto in D minor, op.47
Sinding, Christian
Suite im alten Stil, op.10
Smetana, Bedrich
From the Homeland
Starer, Robert
Violin Concerto
Stravinsky, Igor
Divertimento
Duo concertant
Suite italienne
Violin Concerto in D major
Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich
Piano Trio in A minor, op.50 ‘In Memory of a Great Artist’
Serenade melancolique in B flat minor, op.26
Souvenir d’un lieu cher, op.42
» no.1 Meditation
Violin Concerto in D major, op.35
Vieuxtemps, Henri
Violin Concerto no.4 in D minor, op.31
Violin Concerto no.5 in A minor, op.37
Viotti, Giovanni Battista
Violin Concerto no.22 in A minor, G97
Vivaldi, Antonio
Concertos (12), op.3 ‘L’estro armonico’
» no.6 in A minor, RV356
The Four Seasons (Le quattro stagioni)
Violin Concerto in C minor, RV199 ‘Il Sospetto’
Violin Concertos (6), op.12
» no.1 in G minor, RV317
Violin Concertos (12), op.4 ‘La stravaganza’
» no.5 in A major, RV347
Wieniawski, Henryk
Violin Concerto no.1 in F sharp minor, op.14
Violin Concerto no.2 in D minor, op.22
Artists
Itzhak Perlman (violin)
Placido Domingo (tenor)
Martha Argerich (piano)
Vladimir Ashkenazy (piano)
Daniel Barenboim (piano)
Bruno Canino (piano)
Andre Previn (piano)
Samuel Sanders (piano)
Pinchas Zukerman (violin, viola)
Lynn Harrell (cello)
Yo-Yo Ma (cello)
Mstislav Rostropovich (cello)
Neil Black (oboe)
Ray Still (oboe)
The Abbey Road Ensemble
The Klezmatics
The Klezmer Conservatory Band
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Berliner Philharmoniker
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Concertgebouw Orchestra
English Chamber Orchestra
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
The Juilliard Orchestra
London Philharmonic Orchestra
London Symphony Orchestra
New Philharmonia Orchestra
New York Studio Orchestra
Orchestre de Paris
Philadelphia Orchestra
Philharmonia Orchestra
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductors
Daniel Barenboim
Jesus Lopez Cobos
Lawrence Foster
Carlo Maria Giulini
Bernard Haitink
Jean Martinon
Zubin Mehta
Eugene Ormandy
Seiji Ozawa
Itzhak Perlman
Andre Previn
Gennady Rozhdestvensky
Dov Seltzer
Jonathan Tunick
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