Mordecai Shehori, an Israeli pianist who lives and teaches in New York, has built an enthusiastic following over the past 25 years, largely on the basis of a Romantic interpretive sensibility rooted in the early decades of the 20th century. Mr. Shehori himself is only in his late 50's, but his pianistic heroes are clearly from that receding time, and his preferred repertory, like theirs, takes in the virtuosic transcriptions of Liszt and others, as well as 19th- and early-20th-century works native to the keyboard.

His approach is perfect for the music that interests him. And when his playing is at its best, as it was on Saturday, his readings are a fascinating reminder that the largely vanished performance style he has espoused took in not only bombastic, flashy playing, but also the gentlest and sweetest of pianissimos.

Mr. Shehori offered some of each, with many gradations between. In the Bach Toccata in C (BWV 564), which he played in Busoni's arrangement, Mr. Shehori produced crystalline textures that kept the relationships between the music's contrapuntal strands completely clear, and he played the closing Fugue with considerable power. But the work's central Adagio section was the picture of gracefulness, restraint and precision. Debussy's "Valse Romantique" and Chopin's Scherzo No. 4 shared that quality, as well as a sense that Mr. Shehori had carefully considered the weight and place of every note within a phrase, and every phrase within the work.

This concentrated interpretive style could have made Mr. Shehori's readings sound contrived, but he never crossed that line. And in more extroverted works — the Brahms Rhapsodie in E flat (Op. 119, No. 4), Liszt's arrangements of Schubert's "Soirées de Vienne, No. 6" and Gounod's "Faust Waltz," or a couple of period pieces by Vladimir Horowitz — there was a freewheeling quality that captured the sense of virtuosic improvisation inherent in the music.
ALLAN KOZINN
 

Classicstoday.com

ROMANTIC & VIRTUOSO MUSIC Works by Paganini, Elgar, Sarasate, Rubinstein, others David Nadien (violin); Boris Barere (piano) Cembal d'amour- 111(CD)

Violinist David Nadien is better known among his fellow string players and orchestral colleagues than to the public at large, yet he's been heard everywhere. Nadien served as concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic from 1966 through 1970 and appeared as soloist with that orchestra more than 30 times between 1941 and 1971. This collection showcases Nadien's stylish way with cherished encore-type repertoire that Kreisler and Heifetz did better than anybody. Well, almost anybody. Nadien's luscious tone, impeccable technique, wide color palate, and unerring taste ennobles chestnuts like Elgar's Salut d'amour, Kroll's Banjo and Fiddle, plus Sarasate and Kreisler perennials. The violinist dispatches Paganini's Moto Perpetuo as if it were child's play, and dusts the cobwebs off Mendelssohn's On Wings of Song and Rubinstein's Melody in F, making them sound new and even relevant. No discographical information about these recordings is given. They seem to come from private tapes or lacquers, given the listenable but variable sonics from piece to piece. Boris Barere, son of legendary pianist Simon Barere, sensitively partners Nadien. In short, fiddle aficionados should grab this disc, while they can. [11/8/2000]   --Jed Distler

www.audaud.com  March 2005

Jascha Heifetz Live, Vol. 6

 PROVOST: Intermezzo/ GODOWSKY: Valse/BENJAMIN: Jamaican Rhumba/KROLL: Banjo and Fiddle/BENNETT: Jim Jives/SCHUBERT: Impromptu; Ave Maria/BEETHOVEN: Cadenza and Rondo from Violin Concerto in D/BRUCH: Adagio and Finale from Concerto No. 1 in G Minor/DEBUSSY: La Chevelure; Girl With the Flaxen Hair; It Rains in My Heart/GRASSE: Waves at Play/SCHUMANN: The Prophet Bird/DVORAK: Humoresque/SARASATE: Zigeunerweisen

Donald Vorhees conducts Bell Telephone Hour Orchestra/ Emanuel Bay, p.
Cembal d’amour CD 122 66:10 (Distrib. Qualiton)

Cembal d’amour producer Mordecai Shehori proudly boasts that his latest Heifetz installment now surpasses the number of private reissues of live Heifetz material, the DOREMI label having released only five volumes. This present survey covers ten years, 1942-1952, with Ronald Colman’s wartime introduction for Heifetz via Armed Forces Radio opening the program with the Intermezzo by Provost, a kind of Tristan clone with Emanuel Bay at the keyboard. Typical of the 1940’s acetates, some are in better condition than others, the orchestral tissue in the last movement of the Bruch Concerto (1947) being quite pallid. The 1942 Sarasate showpiece is distantly miked, but the playing, along with Dvorak Humoresque (1952) has the excitement we associate with John Garfield’s appearance in the movie Humoresque with Joan Crawford, the violin there courtesy of Isaac Stern.

The wartime and Cold War sensibility produces some intriguing cuts for Heifetz, like the jingoistic Jim Jives of Bennett (1945) and Kroll’s popular Banjo and Fiddle (1947). The lightning speed of Heifetz at his prime is always a phenomenon to hear, particularly in the Sarasate and in the gymnastics of both Beethoven and Bruch. There is little of the intellectual about Heifetz’ approach: aside from the scholarship of the arrangements and the security of the playing the musicianship is geared to bravura or sentimental effects. The occasional heavy bow pressure, the sudden trnasposition to a higher register, all seem somewhat arbitrary and self-congratulatory. The sheer finesse and facility of the technique are ends in themselves. But every once in a while, a pearl of emotion shines through, and that is always worth the price of admission to a Heifetz recital.

--Gary Lemco