Rene Benedetti - Paganini:Violin Concerto No.1&Columbia Recordings - Import CD

Credits:

Rene Benedetti

Description:

[Heifetz's technique and Thiebaud's charm. A rare reissue of the masterful technique of René Benedetti]. A reissue of this disc is now available to enjoy the outstanding technique and bright beautiful sound of René Benedetti, a leading French virtuoso of the first half of the 20th century. Although his name is now only mentioned as a teacher of Christian Ferras and Jean-Jacques Kantorov, Kantorov called his teacher "truly outstanding, combining Heifetz's technique with Thibaud's charm. Kantorov praised him as "one of the best performers throughout history. Born in 1901 to a family of Italian descent, Benedetti began playing the violin at an early age, as his father was a violin teacher, and at the age of seven he studied at the Paris Conservatory. He was friends with the composers of the "French Six" and performed many of their works, and introduced works by Schoenberg and Stravinsky to France. 12. includes the premiere of Milhaud's Cinema Fantasy from "The Bull on the Roof".He was the first Frenchman to perform Paganini's 24 Caprices and Bach's Sonatas and Partitas unaccompanied in concert, and published his own revised scores. In 1946, a year after the end of the war, he made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic under the direction of Celibidache. He also worked with the B.B.N. Trio with Joseph Benvenuti on piano and Andre Navarra on cello, and taught at the Paris Conservatory from 1942 to 1971. However, his success and fame remained mainly in France "simply because he did not want to be sought after all over the world," recalls his student J-J. Kantorov. Recordings are scarce, and reissues are rare. Benedetti had large hands and slender, delicate fingers, and his left-hand technique is said to have been superb. The collection of pieces recorded here also offers stylish playing with a technique and bright, beautiful sound that is appropriate for the image of "cutting off the sword of pleasure.One of the joys of SP reissues is the rediscovery of pieces that were popular in bygone days but are rarely heard today (many of them were written in a length that would fit on a single SP side), and Zoubek's two pieces are just that. In particular, "Two Minutes of Jazz" is an exhilarating piece that one can only imagine would have received a rousing ovation in a live performance. Paganini's Concerto No. 1, the last piece on the disc, has been known as a Benedetti-like performance, but according to the producer in charge of the reissue, "The shellac is of poor quality and noisy, probably because it was produced during World War II, but if you take out too much noise, the overtones of the violins will disappear, However, if too much noise is removed, the overtones of the violin will disappear, so very little work has been done. Naxos Japan