![]() [Larger view] | Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 & Mendelssohn Violin Concerto & Walton Cello Concerto / Rubinstein, Heifetz, Piatigorsky (EMI Classic Archive 4)
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Average user rating: ![]() | |
Poor quality of picture and sound | |
| I had previously purchased 4 EMI classics DVD's and was satisfied with all. Thus I was very disappointed by the poor sound and picture quality on this DVD and have returned it. The Heifetz Mendelssohn is the worst. The Rubinstein Beethoven is better, but the muted sound of the orchestra in the Beethoven is not good. The Piatigorsky Walton has some bad picture problems near the beginning, but overall the picture is OK (not great, however), while the sound varies. There is no point in buying any of these DVD's just for the sound, in my opinion. If the picture is bad, don't buy. And if the sound is bad, too, then definitely don't buy. | |
Heifetz's Fans may well be disappointed, but... | |
| I was attracted by Heifetz and also by Piatigorsky: I have a Rubinstein DVD conducted by Andre Previn which was dull and one just doesn't feel like going back to it. To my surprise, my rating is almost the other way round. Runbinstein played this concerto rather beautifully, even poetically albeit the culmination of the climax is not quite forceful: it's more like blank verse than anything else. His touches are well depicted by the photographer and the sound is nice. His Beethoven Concertos were the ones which I used to listen most often after all. Piatigorsky is very musical. He was so involved when he played, totally inspired by the music that he was playing. I prefer him to Rostropovich. The recorded sound of Heifetz here is totally distorted particularly his Mendelssohn and Debussy: worse than most historical recordings and simply far from appealing. The vision is much better though and at one point there is even an aeriel view which shows exactly his fingering/vibrato. His Hora Staccato made up quite a bit. Here we see a palette of colours and Heifetz certainly played with a lot of emotions. As far as Heifetz's footage is concerned and particularly Piatigorsky, we don't have much choice. Hora Staccato and Walton alone are worthy of your money and then you will also have Rubinstein's Beethoven # 4 the beauty of which comes really as a surprise. |