★★★★★ A beautifully produced tribute celebrates the great violinist’s 70th birthday.

Featured Recording

Itzhak Perlman
Complete Warner Recordings
Itzhak Perlman v
Warner Classics (77CD)
WARNER Classics 0825646129
★★★★★

In honour of the 70th birthday of violinist Itzhak Perlman (b. Tel Aviv, August 31, 1945), Warner Classics has issued this handsome, lovingly produced 77-disc box. It comprises all the recordings Perlman made over a 30-year period for EMI, Erato and Teldec, and all have been newly remastered.

Perlman’s prime coincided with an era of feverish recording in the classical music industry. He recorded a good deal more than his idol Jascha Heifetz (whom he resembles in many ways). Mostly it was with EMI, although several of his distinguished records from the 1980s, such as the Berg and Elgar Concertos, are to be found on Deutsche Grammophon.

The Heifetz connection is significant. From today’s vantage point Perlman may be regarded as the last in a line of popular, larger-than-life violin virtuosi. “The keeper of the flame,” he is dubbed in the CD booklet, and in one of a series of birthday tributes the French violinist Renaud Capuçon...