Kreisler recorded the Beethoven, Brahms and Mendelssohn concertos twice electrically, and in the case of the first two works the earlier performances with Leo Blech are clearly superior. I think there's less in it so far as the Mendelssohn is concerned, for here the great violinist seems to have recaptured the freshness and vitality of his 1920s recordings, and Ronald is a most attentive accompanist. There's a wonderful spirit of affection, elegance and beauty in evidence, and Kreisler's golden tone and purity of phrase are very affecting. He uses portamento, particularly in the second movement, where his playing has a lovely, song-like quality which seems unaffectedly simple but is in fact quite inimitable.
The first performance of the Schumann Concerto was given by Georg Kulenkampff in Berlin towards the end of 1937, and both he and Menuhin (who gave the first American performance a month later) made early recordings of the work. To my mind it is a most underrated composition and contains many passages of great beauty. The Concerto's thoughtful, poetic nature is only partly realized by Menuhin and Barbirolli in the first movement, which is taken a little too quickly and strenuously. The slow movement is beautifully played, though, and the finale, taken at an ideally moderate, flowing tempo, has many telling inflexions in the hands of these performers. It's strange that Menuhin has never recorded the work again. Good transfers adorn this wellproduced disc.'