Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Violin Concerto in D major Op.77 (1878) [42:59]
Preceding broadcast announcement [0:35]
Jean SIBELIUS (1865-1957)
Violin Concerto in D minor Op.47 (1903 rev 1905) [33:58]
Efrem Zimbalist (violin)
Boston Symphony Orchestra/Serge Koussevitzky (Brahms)
Cleveland Orchestra/Rudolf Ringwall (Sibelius)
rec. broadcast 30 March 1946, Symphony Hall, Boston (Brahms); broadcast 9
January 1944, Severence Hall, Cleveland (Sibelius)
PRISTINE AUDIO PASC307 [77:33] 
This is an important disc which preserves the playing of Efrem Zimbalist (1889-1985),
a Leopold Auer pupil and formidable exponent of the violin literature, whose
long life was devoted to performance and teaching. He did make recordings,
though not as many as one might suppose, given his status as one of the great
triumvirate of Auer alumni – the other two being Mischa Elman and Jascha Heifetz.
This was, in any case, an arbitrary selection of players and even in the 1920s
people talked of another Auer pupil, Toscha Seidel, as being a more representative
player than the rather more aloof and patrician Zimbalist.
Zimbalist made single sided 78s a-plenty, but his major sonata undertakings
were of Brahms’ Op.108 sonata and one of the solo sonatas by Ysaÿe. His only
studio concerto was the famous one of Bach’s Double Concerto, with Kreisler,
and an accompanying string quartet made under the acoustic process, and reissued
many times.
So it’s welcome news that we have two major broadcast concerto performances
available in this disc. I’ve known them for a good while, and I am wholly
delighted that they are appearing in this way; the caveat regarding the Sibelius
is something I shall come to later. The Brahms was a ‘live’ performance at
Symphony Hall with Koussevitzky in 1946. Incidentally, I have a tape of another
Zimbalist performance of the concerto from 1944, given in Cleveland with Leinsdorf.
The Brahms from Boston has appeared before on LP and CD – the latter was on
EKR CD1401, coupled with Toscha Seidel’s Chausson Poème. This Mark Obert-Thorn
restoration effortlessly supplants that muddy, tubby effort. Zimbalist’s playing
is very personalised, very elastic and reveals his famed ‘long bow’ at frequent
moments. He could maintain a full body of sound for ages and his approach
to melody lines was to slow and savour them. Occasionally, given his somewhat
limited sound, this courted sentimentality. His performance is wholly removed
from Heifetz’s raptor instincts in this work, taking greater time, space,
employing a wider range of emotions and treating the work rather more episodically.
After the Kreisler cadenza, which has Zimbalist additions, and at the end
of the movement there is appreciative applause – as indeed there is at the
end of all three movements, Koussevitzky adding a perfectly audible ‘bravo’
as well at the end of the slow movement. This is played in a light, legato-rich
and relaxed manner, Zimbalist refraining from obvious contrasts of tone and
mood in favour of consonance. There’s a small patch of acetate damage three
quarters of the way into the movement. Discreet slides inform the jaunty finale
– by and large Zimbalist was a very ‘clean’ player, and this clean-limbed
playing is up to tempo, nicely phrased and enjoyable. Koussevitzky animates
counter-themes and brings a full body of weight to tuttis, following his occasionally
errant soloist with great adhesive qualities. This is a major document for
violin lovers. I should perhaps add that my tape of this work includes a full
spoken announcement introduction; Pristine has retained only that portion
where the announcer guides, as it were, soloist and conductor to the stage
- which is fair enough.
The Sibelius was performed in January 1944 in Cleveland and conducted by Rudolf
Ringwall. The performance is quite slow as well, a feature of Zimbalist’s
performances generally, sharing something of Elman’s elasticity of phrasing
without his individuality of bowing or molten depth of tone. If only we had
an Elman performance of the Sibelius! Zimbalist performs with balletic elegance,
and a tight, light, somewhat unvaried tone, but excellent technique. His intonation,
it’s true, does fractionally wander, but the slow movement is quite mournful,
albeit limited by a certain hauteur and lack of tone colour from the soloist.
This lack of vibrance is what limits the playing. He is as slow as Anja Ignatius
in the first movement in her famous wartime set, but despite taking 9:30 in
the Adagio doesn’t summon up as much expression as many others who take it
a good deal faster.
But there is a real problem here, honestly set out by Obert-Thorn. For the
first four minutes in the first movement the source material had an extraordinary
eight second delayed echo, which means that it sounds like one vast tape loop.
The violin trails itself, like Time’s Arrow, backwards as it goes forwards.
Frankly it is all but unlistenable. This is a terrible shame as I, and any
other critic, must honestly mention this insurmountable problem. There may
however be a solution. I have a tape of this performance, which I obtained
many years ago. It has no such echo. If Pristine thinks it appropriate they
can borrow my copy – or that of anyone else who may also have it. In this
way, the performance will retain its integrity. I believe it’s important that
this can be done. Zimbalist was a fine musician and, despite my strictures,
he deserves to be heard.
Jonathan Woolf
Zimbalist was a fine musician and deserves to be heard.