Shlomo Mintz, Giuseppe Sinopoli - Beethoven - Violin Concerto / Romances (1988)

Judging simply by timings, Mintz and Sinopoli seem to have decided on a middle path in their approach to the first movement of this concerto: they take nearly a minute less over it than Mutter and Karajan (also on DG), about a minute and a half more than Perlman and Giulini on EMI. Using ears rather than a stopwatch, however, they seem to be giving by far the slowest performance of the movement that I have heard in years. It is a reading from which anything which might savour of soloistic display has been expunged, in which no note, even one of a flourish of semiquavers, is allowed to be 'merely' decorative. Mutter is fond of polishing every note like a jewel, too, but the very opening of the concerto in hers and Karajan's reading sounds positively sprightly set beside the newcomer. The moment Mutter enters the speed slackens markedly, but Karajan watchfully assures that the pulse returns with each tutti, and a sense of momentum is present throughout, even during the soloist's most wayward rhapsodizings. With Mintz and Sinopoli it is the other way аbout: a stolidly slow basic tempo dragged close to immobility whenever Mintz turns poker-facedly earnest, which he does quite often. That this is as much Sinopoli's doing as Mintz's is suggested by the beginning of the slow movement, where the orchestra's statement of the theme (effectively solemn, even hymn-like) slows down massively towards its cadence. Few conductors can resist something of the kind here, but it is Karajan who knows the secret of making the ritenuto well in advance of that cadence, picking up the tempo in time for the soloist's entrance.
Mintz's tone is beautiful (and the recording which places him in a very forward perspective positively insists that you admire it) but it is quite unvaried, with the same vibrato sheen applied to virtually every phrase. Even the contrasting idea in the slow movement, which Beethoven asks to be played on the two lower strings only (and why would he do that, if not to imply a change of tone-quality?), is given much the same colour as everything else. It is a seamlessly perfect sound, in its way (curious, then, to encounter a patch or two of strain in the Kreisler cadenza), but it cannot restore brilliance to that lethargic opening movement Mintz manages a lilting (if slightly mannered) grace in the finale, but at the first sight of a modulation into the minor he returns to his pensive manner; here, though, Sinopoli and the Philharmonia's first bassoon do urge him (successfully) to snap out of it.
The Romances (a welcome bonus: none of the other recordings listed above has any fill-up at all) are also on the serious side, indeed, Mintz pours rather more eloquent expressiveness into the misleadingly-numbered Op. 50 than the unassuming little piece will stand. Not much real competition then for Mutter/Karajan, certainly not for Perlman/Giulini, which has far more tonal variety, much more sensible tempos and a more natural recorded balance. Since Chung (Decca) is all sweetness, light and blandness, despite the thoughtful presence of Kyrill Kondrashin on the rostrum, Perlman would be my first recommendation.'