Michael Rabin - 1936-1972 [6CD Remastered Box Set] (2005)

Magisterial — Rabin's recording of the Wieniawski First Concerto inspired Mischa Elman to remark that that's the way the violin should be played.

In 1947, Ruggiero Ricci became the first to scale Paganini's slippery precipice by recording all 24 Caprices... But if they began to seem like his own, that proprietorship was soon challenged by the young Michael Rabin... Few followed him; later violinists instead revealed, as Rabin had done, more of Paganini's expressive quicksilver (Perlman's performances on LP, digitally remastered in 2000 for EMI's "Great Recordings of the Century" series—EMI 7243 5 67257 2 0—sound, at the same time warmer and grittier, partly on account of more resonant recorded sound, but they don't generate Rabin's voltage in, for example, the Third Caprice; by comparison with Rabin's, even Accardo's celebrated reading, available on Deutsche Grammophon 429 714-2, seems lamentably earthbound, though undeniably lyrical and convincing on its own terms)... Rabin had established a landmark, one that has remained undated and undiminished to this day except in recorded sound. But now, EMI..., has turned its attention to Rabin's caprices. The jewelbox proclaims the "first release on compact disc of original master tapes"; in fact, the 1958 issue sounds several generations younger. Some of the dryness and flatness that David K. Nelson noticed in the original CD issue in EMI's Michael Rabin, 1936-1972 (CMS 7 64123 2 A; 15:5) has been replaced by an added dimensionality that listeners to previous incarnations would hardly have suspected (Rabin's Caprices also appeared as EMI CDM-64560, supposedly in stereo, in 1993, but the recorded sound didn't approach the new remastering's fidelity). The effect is downright visceral, like having Rabin himself in the room. Few recordings more richly deserve a drink at the fountain of youth. And there's more magisterial Rabin, already available in EMI's six-disc set, notably the Wieniawski First Concerto, which inspired Elman to remark that that's the way the violin should be played, and a stunning Paganini Concerto that would make perfect candidates for a face-lift. But if I had chosen any of Rabin's recordings for an afterlife, they would be just the ones EMI has remastered, particularly the Caprices. One of the greatest violin recordings of all time has just grown a few inches in stature. Absolutely essential.