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Pleasing touch from an up-and-comer

By TIMES STAFF
Published December 19, 2006

Pleasing touch from an up-and-comer 

Julia Fischer

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto (PentaTone Classics)

It is not hard to understand why the classical music world is paying increasing attention to 23-year-old German violinist Julia Fischer, who was featured on the covers of two important classical-music magazines this year.

She combines boundless technique with a lovely, singing tone and affecting sense of musicality. These qualities are nicely showcased in the secondary works on this release with the Russian National Orchestra, especially in her moving take on the Serenade melancolique (Op. 26).

It is easy to wonder if we need yet another recording of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, but this one offers a fine performance with superb stereophonic sound. Fischer takes a largely middle-of-the-road interpretative approach, tinging her playing at times with a fitting folk quality.

Kyle MacMillan, Denver Post

Sound worthy of its home

 Esa-Pekka Salonen, Los Angeles Philharmonic Le Sacre du printemps (Deutsche Grammophon)

The Los Angeles Philharmonic's standing has risen dramatically since the opening of its new home, the fabulous Disney Concert Hall. This is the first live recording in the sonically rich space, and Salonen and the philharmonic make the most of it with an assembly of three big, often brash works that tax the orchestra in almost every way imaginable.

While the performances of Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain and Bartok's The Miraculous Mandarin have much to recommend them, the heart of this recording is the orchestra's explosive, sharply delineated version of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring).

Kyle MacMillan, Denver Post

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[Last modified December 19, 2006, 06:40:42]