In the Beethoven the shock of the old comes right at the start, long before the entry of Monica Huggett and her gut-strung Amati violin. With the Stephanie Chase/Roy Goodman recording on Cala still fairly fresh in my mind, I am relieved to discover that four piano Ds on an eighteenth-century drum don't have to sound like someone tapping disconsolately on a sheet of scrap metal, but the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment's version still sounds weirdly bodiless. Yes, eighteenth-century timpani can be thrillingly incisive in big Beethovenian fortissimos, but they make a limp, inauspicious opening gesture here.
That's enough on one detail—especially because it is not really typical. On the whole the sound Mackerras and his production team get from the period band is sonorous, even gutsy—so long as you're not expecting the Berlin Philharmonic strings. And despite the relative tonal slightness of Monica Huggett's instrument, her performance has power and a strong expressive profile. Like Stephanie Chase, she can be surprisingly mellifluous (rubato isn't as sparing as the booklet-note suggests), but there is also grit in the playing. These two sides of the concerto's character aren't always as well balanced in performance, nor does the finale normally fly along with such effortless brilliance—a definite plus for the lighter bow there.
It is the slow movement that worries me. The sound of the instruments is pleasing, and I don't mind the shortened ends of phrases, but it isn't very atmospheric. Perhaps I'm conditioned to expect soft-focus and pastel hues, but the somewhat matter-of-fact Huggett/Mackerras alternative hasn't convinced me yet. I like Huggett's cadenzas though—brilliant but definitely pre-Paganini, yet with an affectionate backward (or is it forward?) glance to the familiar Joachim in the closing bars of the first movement's big soliloquy.
As for the Mendelssohn—well, the last thing I want in that glorious opening tune is a long, bland legato, but Huggett's concentration on short phrases breaks it up for me; it feels short-winded. The tune in the slow movement also fails to blossom, though the troubled middle section is exceptionally well characterized (back to the darker world of the first movement). And again the lighter bow and more flexible strings bring refreshing litheness and agility to the finale and first movement cadenza. If Tokay-flavoured gipsy eloquence is essential for you in this concerto, you are in for a disappointment; but for those without predetermined tastes this disc has to be worth hearing, to show what a 'period' fiddle can do in the hands of a player of stamina and character, and to remind us that the big romantic orchestral sound doesn't 'belong' exclusively to either concerto. There is still plenty of rethinking to be done. This disc could push it that bit further.'