Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm makes a big deal on their website about the ideals behind high-end audio production, and this recording certainly sounds superb. The tone is warm and naturally resonant, and the instruments are reproduced in a beautifully natural-sounding fashion. If you have a serious audio system at home, this is the sort of recording that you can use to show off just how good a CD can sound. It’s a disappointment, then, that the playing on this disc is merely adequate, rather than good or great. When you can hear every note with crystal clarity, it’s distressing to realise that what should be breathtakingly virtuosic runs at the end of the famous Carmen Fantasy are, in this recording, rather messy. The more reflective passages come off well, with the duo working well together, but in these pieces the spotlight is clearly on the violin. In turn, this means that the flaws come through rather obviously.
The other issue is merely a matter of programming. I will admit to a soft spot for the late 19th century’s more flamboyantly virtuosic works, but isn’t an hour and a quarter of operatic paraphrases really a bit much? Yes, they’re rendered in lovingly reproduced sound, but Sarasate does tend to be a little on the unsubtle side, and there’s really only so much wild bariolage and daring octave leaps before it all becomes a little wearing. Bravo, at least, to the audio department at MDG.
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