The good is not always the enemy of the best
UncategorizedFrom the Lebrecht Album of the Week:
The old French truism that the best is the enemy of the good does not apply to musical performance. The best is simply the best. There are half-a-dozen recordings of the two Prokofiev concertos that stand way above the rest…
Read on here
And here.
I look forward to having the chance to hear this artist.
The two Prokofiev concertos happen to be things that Isaac Stern recorded more than once — excellently played in his monaural recordings, still quite splendid in the stereo recordings with Ormandy, and somewhat disappointing in his third go around in stereo. I’d also mention the Chandos recording of Lydia Mordkovitch as being very much in the running.
And not all artists cared to record both. Zino Francescatti made a lovely monaural recording of No. 2, which Sony did reissue on CD, but he did not record the Concerto No. 1 and I do not know that it was in his repertoire; Szigeti’s 78 rpm set of Concerto No. 1 with Beecham is a classic touchstone recording. His stereo remake for Mercury needs special ears to listen through the very evident struggles the violin presented to him by that time. I do not think that the Concerto No 2 was ever in Szigeti’s repertoire. Fortunately he did record both Sonatas.
In my opinion there is nobody to touch Zino Francescatti in the 2nd concerto.
I also remember a great performance of the same concerto by Pins Carmirelli but I don’t think she ever recorded it
The correct french expression is “le mieux est l’ennemi du bien”.
Jascha Heifetz never recorded the first Prokofiev Concerto in D Major, and to the best of my knowledge, never performed it publicly though I’m sure he was familiar with it. His two commercial recordings of the G minor Concerto are legendary, and Nathan Milstein’s recordings of both concerti are marvelous, especially the D Major Concerto with Giulini. Oistrakh’s D Major Prokofiev was sensational. I heard him perform it in Carnegie Hall in the early seventies with one of the Russian orchestras – it was a phenomenal concert and as an encore, he played the scherzo of the concerto again, and it was just as phenomenal as the first time! Joseph Szigeti’s recording of Prokofiev No. 1 is also legendary and fantastic!
Re Heifetz’s and Nathan Milstein’s preview performances in the flyover states, if they were as you describe, were they with piano or with orchestra?
Random thoughts …
The first concerto had its premiere in 1923 and, to me, still sounds startlingly new.
In 1979, Jerome Robbins used it for his ballet “Opus 19 – The Dreamer” created on Mikhail Baryshnikov and Patricia McBride for New York City Ballet; I was at the premiere. I’d not heard the concerto before and ran the next day to a record store in search of an LP … on a budget label with an unknown violinist, the top tier artists and labels being beyond my student budget.
Balanchine and Robbins were responsible for burning so much great music onto my brain (the Fauré/Stravinsky/Tchaikovsky scores for “Jewels”, the “Liebeslieder Walzer” … )
Larry Lash: thanks to your posting I have spent several days making my brain (the remnants of it that is) ache by trying to recall what budget labels had a Prokofiev D Major in their catalog circa 1979, and of course I could kick myself for long ago discarding all those old Schwann catalogs I used to keep. Westminster Gold with Igor Oistrakh, Monitor had an old David Oistrakh, but you would not have called either of them “an unknown violinist.” The “World Series” budget label that Phillips had featured a coupling of Khachaturian and Prokofiev D Major concertos with Claire Bernard. The old Concert Hall with Riccardo Odnoposoff would not I think have been available in 1979. So I am nominating Claire Bernard as 1) having recorded it 2) it being on a budget label with wide distribution at the time and 3) she is and was relatively unknown, unfairly given her credentials and discography. Her Prokofiev is available on YouTube should you seek to take a trip down memory lane.
As Oliver noted, I believe the quote is backwards. I first picked it up when hearing Sov AF Leaders complaining about how long it took to get a new model jet manufactured. Just about as the model was ready to go into production the “good idea fairy” added a new piece of gear setting everything back