Sunday, and the day of The Crab. Bought yesterday at Fishworks, and truly superb -- despite the price. A large crab is one of my favourite things ... as is Handel. Had a second Handel evening in a row, basking first in Patrizia Ciofi and Joyce di Donato in opera duets, ending up with Magdalena Kozena in two Italian cantatas. What is it about Handel? I just know that, along with the Beethoven string quartets, Handel's vocal music is something I shall always have to have within arm's length. Marvellous listening. And The Crab was marvellous eating.

My birthday. Celebrated it by buying and eating a large Cornish brill (Fishworks, Bath). Actually, it was not outstanding, and no patch on plaice, lemon sole or Dover sole. Adequate, but not more. The cheese (Bath) was a lot better.
For music, as is becoming traditional for special occasions, it was George Frediric Haendel (opera arias, sung by Sandrine Piau). That, at least, was excellent.

Not often that, after 50 years of listening, one discovers a "new" composer. But (thanks to Carlos) I have been very attracted to the two violin and piano sonatas of Leo Weiner. And the two violin concertos are on their way to me, via Kentucky. Weiner writes well, and has some good tunes; a sort of Hungarian Vaughan Williams. Why his chamber works (along with those of Alkan) are not better known defies the imagination. It would make a good duo change from endless Brahms, Ravel and Debussy!
Like the CD of Lise de la Salle, my Weiner CD is one that I am reluctant to shelve in the main collection.

Ye gods; yet another fine young violinist. A double CD featuring Liza Ferschtman reveals a young Dutch violinist in the same mould as Janine Jansen or Julia Fischer. Lithe, fleet of foot, technically on the ball, with an excellent palette of tone colours. The CDs feature sonatas by Franck, Debussy and Poulenc, plus pieces by Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich. A fine collection of Franco-Russian music played by an excellent Dutch violinist. Good pianist is Bas Verheijden and the Brilliant Classics recording features a good balance.

Listened to the new CD from Lise de la Salle. This 16 year old from Cherbourg certainly sparkles and sounds as fresh as the dew. And what dexterity! The opening Bach has the same effect as opening a bottle of good champagne. The disc contains Bach, Bach-Busoni, Bach-Liszt, and Liszt. A really delightful CD that I'll keep near my player for some time.

Weepy evening; Chausson's Poème de l'Amour et de la Mer (Felicity Lott) and Delius's Sea Drift (Beecham). Interval was Lott singing three songs by Duparc. Highly satisfactory, and I particularly enjoyed the Chausson. Another Chausson on its way to me this week (Susan Graham) and it will be interesting to hear how it compares.

Listened again to Isabelle van Keulen playing the Elgar violin concerto (just a few days after listening to the Hilary Hahn studio recording with Colin Davis). Van Keulen is a bit rough at places in her attack, and there are several unfortunate lapses in the finale. But she plays with spirit and one hears clearly that her heart is in what she is playing. Hilary Hahn is technically more secure and immaculate; but one does not get the same impression that she is really feeling the music. Van Keulen wins on points, but it's a pity about the intonation lapses, and also a pity that the violin is balanced a little too closely to the microphone. I must re-listen to Hahn's live performance (also with Davis, but with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra).

Evening spent with Sergei Khachatryan and Hilary Hahn. Quite bowled over by the 17 year old Khachatryan in the Beethoven violin concerto. Maybe conventional wisdom that says you need to be an experienced, mature artist to tackle a work such as this is not necessarily correct? K. plays beautifully, and frequently with an extraordinarily absorbing pianissimo. This is certainly the best Beethoven concerto since Batiashvili in August 2000, and I was very surprised by just how much I enjoyed it, since it is no longer a concerto I enjoy automatically. The recording made off-air with the NHK orchestra in Tokyo is a model of its kind, with exemplary balance and real dedication from the orchestra (with "old" horns in the Russian style). The encore, the andante from Bach's second sonata, is quite stunning and technically the best since Heifetz. Three stars all round! And thanks to Akiko for the copy.

Hilary Hahn really shows off in the first Paganini concerto (off-air in California in September of last year). She does not quite have the élan of Kogan or Mullova, nor the vulgar panache of Michael Rabin. But, technically, she is anyone's equal. Let down, however, by the recorded balance (very much in the American style, with the "star" well to the fore; why could the engineers not have recruited Khachatryan's Japanese?) Also let down by Hahn's habit of slamming on the brakes every time a lyrical passage turns up. Paganini's concerto was contemporary with Beethoven and Rossini and he simply would not have expected such a degree or frequency of rallentandi to interrupt the flow of the music. However, a thoroughly enjoyable romp through Paganini's evergreen music, and a quite terrifying rendition of the Sauret cadenza.

I have had a lot of pleasure out of the new Viktoria Mullova disc (Bach BWV 1002, Bartok solo sonata, Paganini Nel cor più non mi sento). Just think that it was recorded some 18 years ago and I never bought it or listened to it! None of the three works is a favourite of mine, yet I enjoy all three of them on this CD because of the playing: lots of variety of sound, lots of spirit, no languishing, no wallowing in beautiful sound. Thoroughly enjoyable.

Difficult to imagine a better performance of Vaughan Williams' Lark Ascending than that of Hilary Hahn, Colin Davis and the LSO (a fill-up to the Elgar violin concerto). Critics often claim that the Lark is for "violin within the orchestra" as opposed, say, to Chausson's Poème that is for violin and orchestra.
Well, Ms Hahn and Sir Colin (like Sarah Chang and Bernard Haitink before them) point up the parallels with Chausson's near-contemporaneous work. Played like this, with Hilary Hahn earning brownie points with nearly every phrase, Vaughan Williams' piece is fully Chausson's equal. A well-deserved three stars.

The evening began with Viktoria Mullova playing Bach's B minor partita for unaccompanied violin (the one I usually don't like too much) and Paganini's variations on Nel cor più non mi sento. Mullova, like Kavakos, is highly under-estimated. The Paganini is breathtaking instead of, as all too often with other players, nail-biting. And Julia Fischer should have listened to Mullova's BWV 1002 before embarking on her own long-winded rendition. Mullova is fleet of foot, and makes repeats when it makes sense to make repeats.

The Elgar violin concerto has been lucky on record, with many successes and few turkeys. The recording by Hilary Hahn with Colin Davis and the LSO continues the concerto's run of good luck. The performance feels swift but, compared with Sammons or Heifetz, it is not that fast. But both Hahn and Davis know that it is fatal to wallow in Elgar. Hilary plays entrancingly; I have not been an uncritical admirer of hers, but she certainly wins a lot more than she loses. A pretty admirable modern violinist. This recording has been criticised by some as being "heartless". Well, not criticised by me; I add it to the file of Sammons, Kang, Heifetz, Van Keulen, Chung et al as yet another really good Elgar violin concerto.

In the same evening, I listened to Christian Tetzlaff and Leif Ove Andsnes in the first Bartok violin & piano sonata. I bought my first recording of this piece in 1959 (Menuhin) and have been listening to it and buying it ever since. I still don't like it and hardly recognise a phrase or a passage, even after nearly 50 years of listening. It's either Bartok or I who is at fault; I suspect Bartok.

Listened to the second CD of Julia Fischer's complete journey through the Bach unaccompanied works, and this confirmed my view from the first CD. Interesting to read Rob Cowan compare Fischer's recordings with those of Johanna Martzy of fifty years ago; I must confess, the same parallel had also occurred to me. Beautiful playing, immaculate musicianship, superb control, lovely sound.
Like the Bach recordings of Heifetz, Fischer's can be enjoyed as a example of superb violin playing but, like the Bach recordings of Heifetz, Bach seems to come second. In the faster movements, and in the dance movements, Fischer is excellent. But show her a marking of andante, adagio or sarabande, and she stamps on the brakes and engages first gear. And since she also takes every single repeat, life can go on for rather a long time in the slow pieces (the opening Allemande from the first suite, for example, wanders on for six and a half minutes. Kavakos, whose recording I really like, takes just under five minutes -- exactly the same as Heifetz. Batiashvili takes five minutes). The Chaconne is an exemplary example of great violin playing, but it lacks structure and is far too episodic. For a true archicture in the Chaconne, we have to go back to Heifetz and Milstein.
But, to end on a positive note, her playing of the Preludium to the third suite is really stunning and interesting.

Older and wiser. I had not even one recording from Christian Tetzlaff until I recorded a Wigmore Hall recital that took place a few days ago with Tetzlaff and Leif Ove Andsnes. Quite outstanding and, given the presence of the entirely admirable Andsnes, a true duo recital. They played Beethoven's Op 30 No.1, Mozart's K 306, Grieg's third sonata, and the Shostakovich sonata. An excellent recital with both artists firing on all cylinders.
It is interesting that Tetzlaff's nice sounds came from a three-year old German violin; he apparently believes that modern instruments are fully equal to most older ones, and puts his beliefs into practice. Convincingly.

Halfway through the complete Bach unaccompanied sonatas and partitas by Julia Fischer. So far I have heard first and second sonatas, plus the first partita. I must admit to some disappointment, and listening is heavy-going -- partly because anything marked "adagio" or "andante" is taken very slowly indeed; the marvellous andante of the second sonata seems to go on for ever, as do the first movements of both sonatas. The violin playing is, of course, breathtaking. But as previous violinists such as Johanna Martzy and Alfredo Campoli have shown, beautiful playing and beautiful tone are simply not enough. The music needs to come alive, dances need to be rhythmic, the music should never be allowed to drag (the first partita goes on and on even longer than usual). When listening to Fischer, I pine for the versions of Kavakos, of Milstein, of Mullova -- or even the underestimated Lara St John.

Once again, most impressed with Frank Peter Zimmermann, in a broadcast from the 2005 Schwetzingen Festival (with Enrico Pace on the piano). Two Bach duo sonatas, the second Busoni sonata, and the third Brahms sonata make up an excellent, classical 79 minute programme. Zimmermann (now aged 40) turns out to be an excellent classical violinist of the Central European school.
Less impressed with a CD devoted to Manuel Quiroga (from Carlos). Puzzling to find that many of the "giants" of the past had distinct technical failings. Quiroga had a lovely tone; but his technique was fallible which makes for some uncomfortable listening.

On 7th April (concert from Manchester) I recorded a very fine Brahms violin concerto by Victoria Mullova (with Hallé Orchestra under Mark Elder). Straightforward, fiery, no wallowing, immaculate playing; just the kind of violin playing I like. I think that Mullova and Kavakos are probably two of the most under-rated violinists playing today. Fortunately, the BBC seems to like them. The Mullova Brahms makes a fine coupling with last year's excellent Proms performance of the Sibelius concerto. A good CD !

Well, another wonder of wonders: having discovered Alfred Cortot playing the first book of Debussy's Preludes, unlistened to in a pile, I dutifully listened to the two fill-ups. These were two substantial preludes, chorals and fugues by César Franck. Quite bowled over, and the two pieces have been spinning on my turntable ever since. Immensely attractive music. The sound and surfaces (from 1929 and 1931) are not great. But the playing is. And the music is. We live and learn

Well, wonder of wonders. I spent the evening listening with great enjoyment to ... David Oistrakh. Normally, I find him somewhat bland and over-exposed (a bit like Milstein). But this evening he was playing live: a collection of pieces from the mid-1950s in Moscow, plus the Chausson concerto for violin, piano and string quartet (Moscow, 1960). A bit like Heifetz; Oistrakh caught live and on the wing is a different animal. For almost the first time, I really warmed to him this evening. I must investigate more live Oistrakh.