Here’s another mixed bag from the Disky Communications reissue label, Royal Long Players, entitled “Great Violin Concertos”. That much, at least, is true; the same may not be said, however, of each of these four individual performances. The best of them, a 1973 account of Dvorak’s violin concerto by Herman Krebbers and the Amsterdam Philharmonic under Anton Kersjes, is a wonderful discovery, and I can well imagine violin enthusiasts seeking out this set to acquire this performance alone. I’m reminded, not for the first time recently, of just how fine a fiddler Krebbers was. A Dutch colleague who knows him well tells me he’s still playing and teaching in Holland, though this recording was made during his lengthy and distinguished tenure as concertmaster of the Concertgebouw Orchestra. Krebbers’ Dvorak is immensely stylish and idiomatic, and I must say I prefer it to the likes of Kyung-Wha Chung (EMI) and Salvatore Accardo (Philips). Of course, that still leaves the warm-hearted and radiant-sounding Josef Suk and his Supraphon recording, which also includes the ineffably beautiful Romance in F minor–which remains essential listening.
Accardo’s Philips Silver Line Dvorak reissue, coupled with a noble and dramatic reading of the Sibelius concerto, is in every way vastly preferable to this 1976 rehash by Emmy Verhey with Hans Vonk and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. This occupies Disc 2 of Royal’s set, alongside Yehudi Menuhin’s eloquent 1958 Brahms and a forgettable Tchaikovsky from Vladimir Spivakov. Get this for the Krebbers Dvorak.
