When Erick Friedman wraps his long arms around his fiddle (he wears specially tailored shirts with 37-inch sleeves) he becomes one with the instrument. „Of all musical instruments,“ he says, „the violin is the most personal. It is right in your hands. It is an extension of yourself.“

The young virtuoso feels the same personal involvement in works written for the violin as he does for his golden Stradivarius (1724). „I must soak up a work“ he explains. „I live with it until it becomes ingrained, a habit, a part of myself. This is one reason why I can be calm during a performance. I know the work so well that I can concentrate simply on playing my best.“

The repertoire of this album displays his mastery of the unique – qualities of the violin. In Sarasate’s Gypsy Airs, Zigeunerweisen, Friedman plays with robust high spirits and elegance of style. In contrast, Legende by Wieniawski is dreamy, tender, romantic.

Saint-Saens Havanaise shows yet another side of Friedman’s genius his affectionate phrasing of a simple air, instinct with dignity. He approaches Chaussons Poeme with deep reverence, and returns to the gypsy idiom of the first work in Ravel’s fiery Trigane.

Erick Friedman has just begun to show what he can do. When he was chosen as one of two „outstanding new artists of 1962“ by Saturday Review, a critic remarked: „Friedman is darkly self-possessed, highly gifted and plainly on his way“ With this recording Friedman takes another stride along the golden road traveled by — mong others-Paganini, Sarasate, Kreisler and Heifetz. It is particularly fitting that he is accompanied by Sir Malcolm Sargent and the London Symphony Orchestra. Sargent has long been a noted collaborator of Heifetz. What better collaborator, then, for Erick Friedman?

Artykuł CHAUSSON, SARASATE, SAINT-SAENS, RAVEL, WIENIAWSKI<br />Erick Friedman, The London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Malcolm Sargent -2LP – 33 rpm pochodzi z serwisu Cleartone.