Vengerov Audio CD – CD, January 11, 2005

Vengerov has become more mature in his technique and interpretation. He is giving less concerts - only 30 concerts in 2005, as compared with 110 in 2004 - he is determined to be disciplined. He is also learning a lot of other things to broaden his horizon, which would help enrich his music.In this newly released album, he continues to demonstrate his virtuosity, adding new flavours to these favourite pieces. He continues to master those technically demanding pieces with relative ease, but he is capable of making them sound more difficult.He is one of those violinists that could produce the sweetest sound on earth (the change of violin does not seem to have any effect on his playing). Kreisler's Liebesleid and Liebesfreud sounded afresh, although Vengerov has made them just a tiny bit too heavy. I would rather have them played in an easier and more relaxed fashion. Perhaps a little more rubato would have helped.Vocalise was included again in this album. Compared with the previous recording, the self-indulgence has subsided, leaving it truly sorrowful. I like his interpretation this time round. The Theme From Schindler's List was played with much thoughts. The emotion was there. But it seems that Perlman's version remains the best in terms of the deepness and melancholy displayed.I have deducted one star from my rating as I have been expecting something new from him. There is not much surprise in this album.That said, Vengerov is surely one of the best performers now and I can see him becoming more mature in the next few years. Vengerov's fans would be satisfied. Not a bad start if you have never heard him.

I tend to buy cds for music I like. I listened to this opn Spotify first but I like to get decent recordings then I don't rely on 'renting'.In some free countries it's legal to make backup copies, like rip your own cds to lossless and then you can use a good quality to stream or play on stereo instead of relying on renting variable quality compressed music. So CDs still have their use and some advantages over streaming.Also, Vengerov deserves some support, although I expect record company takes like 90%...

Bon enregistrement

Maxim Vengerov is one of the finest violin players of the moment and this disc with a selection of composers is very satisfying. Buy it, close your eyes and let the music entrance you.

Vengerov spielt wunderbar - so wie immer

Excellent - so good that after this I went on to buy the equally excellent complete Vengerov collection.