A couple of years ago I spoke to Isaac Stern about possible future recording projects, with particular reference to hearing him – for the first time on disc – in Bach’s complete unaccompanied Sonatas and Partitas. Not an unreasonable notion, I thought, especially as Ida Haendel had recently recorded them (Testament, 1/97) and now so has Aaron Rosand (forthcoming from Vox), neither artist being exactly in the first flush of youth. So, we live in hope.
Listening to Stern’s chaste, unruffled readings of Kreisler’s Grave and Larghetto brought those conversations to mind. Stern is at his best in music that has structure, size or something big to say, and although he made a number of sweet-centred ‘encore’ records years ago, his current tonal properties – where vibrato is scaled down and the sound itself has become a trifle pale – would probably suit Bach more than it suits Kreisler.
The present selection is at its best in the Scherzo, Rondino and La gitana, charming pieces stylishly phrased, but elsewhere the sensual element that was such a prominent feature of Stern’s earlier records has now silvered and thinned. What is more, Peter Wolf’s orchestrations are distractingly unsubtle and the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra are not heard at their best (sample some alarmingly off-pitch horns at 0'17'' and 0'25'' into the opening Liebesfreud or the ungainly closing moments of Slavonic Dance No. 2 on track 10).
The programme itself has been carefully chosen and the recorded sound leaves nothing to be desired.'