Search - The Art of Ida Haendel - Brahms Violin Concerto / Sarasate Carmen Fantasy on DVD

The Queen of Violin

BLee | HK | 10/08/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"
The films were televised in 78 & 80, both in colour with most excellent recorded sound; so was the camera work. And before we hear the Brahms Concerto and the Carmen Fantasy, Ida briefly commented on the structure and complexities of the two pieces. These comments were made years after the pieces were filmed, some rather recently, but they are just as interesting.

For whatever "the queen of violin" means, or who the queen should really be, this is still a very good DVD that shows you the virtuosity as well as musicianship of a great artist. Anyway, rightly so or not and for whatever it is worth, before the WWII people used to refer to Ida as the queen of the violin. She was a pupil of the great pedagogue Carl Flesch who also taught Syring. After the war, she immigrated to Canada and since forgotten by the younger audiences. Nonetheless, there is some gossip saying that Mutter once, probably before she became a superstar, craved for Ida's comments very much... From this DVD, you can probably tell why.

The best vioinist DVD I have seen all these years, not just because Ida is a great violinist, but also because of the remarkable repertoire played and recorded with excellence, sound and sight.

Yes, we have one or two Morini, Heifetz DVD that are intriquing: but they are substantially if not altogether B/W production with relatively primitive recording. The same for Oistrakh, Milstein, Menuhin or even Syring... For really excellent modern production, we only have Perlman, Mutter and perhaps a couple more. But they are not quite the same thing as Ida has to offer here. Just to have a taste of the the great German violin tradition, you can't possibly miss this."