In March I was able to welcome Biddulph's issue of Huberman's pre-electric Brunswick recordings, and was looking forward to hearing the new set containing all the violinist's Columbias (excluding the concertos), which were made electrically between 1929 and 1935. It's true that the repertoire is less interesting, and includes seven tasteless Chopin and Schubert arrangements in a selection of 15 encore pieces, but the playing is itself also much more open to criticism. Huberman's Bach, whether in two unaccompanied sonata movements or two fairly dignified arrangements, is certainly impressive in its nobility and broad, expressive phrasing, and he responds sympathetically to Tchaikovsky's Melodie and an abbreviated Bruch Kol Nidrei. On the other hand, Elgar's La capricieuse is manhandled in a very vulgar fashion, and there are scoops and distorted phrasing in Sarasate's Romanza andaluza. The Chopin arrangements are made to sound even worse than they are because of Huberman's feverish inten-sity, his mawkish use of portamento and over-sentimental phrasing. He also tends to force his tone in a unpleasantly rough-handed fashion.
In the Kreutzer Sonata there are a good number of un-Beethovenian mannerisms, not on the part of Ignaz Friedman (who could be an over-excitable artist yet who behaves himself pretty well here), but from Huberman, whose energy and enthusiasm boil over into wild excesses of phrasing and tonal ugliness. The slow movement in particular lacks any dignity or discipline, and his sentimental use of phrase and portamento goes against the music's natural expression. In total it is an uncontrolled, outsize interpretation which quite lacks the stature of the earlier version on Brunswick. There freedom and expression are very much present, although kept within bounds—perhaps the acoustic recording horn had a beneficially restraining effect on this impulsive artist.
As a bonus we are given repeat performances of two Chopin and Schubert arrangements which derive from Berliners recorded in 1899, when Huberman was 17 years old. These must be among the earliest recordings made by a celebrity violinist, and are interesting to hear for that fact. Musically, however, they are negligible. Ward Marston's transfers are excellent throughout.'