Zukerman and Barenboim made a number of wonderful recordings in the mid-to-late 70’s. Together they were an undersung “great partnership” along the lines of Mutter/Karajan in my opinion. (Their recordings of the Beethoven, Brahms, Sibelius, and Elgar concerti are fantastic.) Zukerman, to me, started to sound like a violin-playing machine (“tone, check; vibrato, check; heart & soul within acceptable parameters”) sometime during the 80’s, concurrent with the rise of his career as a conductor; but during this time he still sounds like a violinist in love with the violin. (Barenboim, having been a conductor/pianist since the beginning, has IMHO had no trouble doing both jobs beautifully over the years.) Anyway —
This is not a set of overly “personal” interpretations. I don’t get a sense of knitted eyebrows and pained facial expressions trying to tell me how meaningful this music is. What I get instead is a sense of “this is such beautiful music; you should listen to it.”
Wonderful playing
