Virtuosity Alone

SHLOMO MINTZ has been a quickly rising talent in the United States since his debut at age 16 in Carnegie Hall. He has shown up everywhere from Mostly Mozart concerts with Yo Yo Ma at Lincoln Center to solo appearances with the Israeli Symphony. He recently recorded the Mendelssohn and Bruch (G minor) violin concerti. However, his most recent accomplishment, a recording of Kreisler pieces and arrangements, shows he lacks good taste and ability in program selection. These Kreisler shorts have been encore pieces for violinistic virtuosos since they were first recorded by Kreisler in the mid-1920s. They are all repetitious, and a recital of 18 show-off compositions like this Mintz disc will bore the hell out of anyone unimpressed by virtuosity alone.

Of course, the same could not be said of Kreisler's some 200 records. An Austrian violinist with the most distinctive style of the 20th century, he plays his own pieces with poise and beauty.

Kreisler's achievement of learning the craft of composition might be commendable if his method were not Machiavellian--he accomplished his ends by stealing and lying (it was the only way for a violinist to succeed in a field so competitive and demanding.) He filched the style and flavor of classical composers and used them in his own works. Fortunately, he admitted his crimes--for musicologists' sakes--in pieces like "Variations on a Theme of Corelli in the Style of Giuseppe Tartini." But he sometimes tried to fool other composers by publishing old-style pieces under the names of 18th century composers (for example, "Andantino by Padre Martini.") Kreisler saves face by striking a balance between technicality and musicianship. Unlike Paganini, Wieniawski, Ysaye and other violin virtuosi-composers, he has warm melodies, sweet harmonies.

Mintz's musicianship becomes his salvation too, especially in the well-known Liesbesleid (Love's Sorrow), Liebesfreud (Love's Joy) and Caprice viennois op. 2. Mintz plays ricochet bowings and fancy-fingered high notes in the umpteenth position with more clarity and precision than the old master himself (Kreisler had to be a genius to be able to make millions of his concerts and records and manage to get away with an hour's practicing once a month). Shlomo's earthy, robust tone enlivens every phrase in these three pieces.

Mintz plays Liebesleid, the best composition and best performance on the DG disc, with unusual maturity for a twenty-four-year old. His moving interpretation of melodies on the fiddle tell of precocity with women. This is therefore good music to waltz to. (Make sure the room is candle-lit, and try to get Sugar drunk on Chateau Lafite Rothchild.) Since Liebesleid is the last piece on side one, make sure your record player is rigged to keep on playing after the needle reaches the end. The atmosphere is just right for those final moments of reflection on past romance.

Though Kreisler plays his other pieces faster, with more articulation, and with less shmaltz than Mintz, the latter's Liebesleid--slow and sorrowful--has more appeal. On RCA Victrola's 1968 release of Kreisler "Souvenirs," recorded in the 1920s, the composer plays the piece with slides and portamentos at every place imaginable. Mintz plays important notes with vibrato and spirit without sliding. Directors might consider using the piece for a romantic movie scene. The choice of lovers will be irrelevant; the mood of the scene--an intense, despairing good-bye--will be the same.

In Caprice viennois, Mintz plays fast passages clearer than Kreisler and has a wide, loud vibrato in slow passages. Kreisler plays with more appeal, though, because his short notes and even harmonics get vibrato. Mintz plays the double stops (two notes sounded at the same time) more ambitiously than Kreisler, who plays nothing out of place.

NO ONE CAN BEAT Kreisler playing Kreisler. Maybe he developed his individuality from giving up the violin in his teens, joining the army and studying to become a doctor. Maybe it was his training at Vienna and the Paris Conservatoire before he was 12. In any event, the charm of Mintz's recording of the three pieces mentioned disappears in the others' lack of diversity in phrasing and tone color. Mintz sometimes plays too fast, too strong or too rubato. Some of his accents and tenutos (notes slightly lengthened for effect) are either too numerous or unnatural. Mintz' basically solid performance will give the impression of dragging even at rapid tempi because of unnecessary emphases.

In some of the Kreisler compositions, Mintz's heavy style works. The Russian's Zigeuner-Capriccio (Gypsy caprice) sounds Bohemian, with good articulation and flashy slides. Mintz knows--or so it is said--what it is like to wake up and forget that he is not in his own bed. On the other hand, the recording of Kreisler's arrangement of the Albeniz Tango is no reason to get the butter. Mintz plays it as oversentimentally as the Glasunow.

But the same style goes well in the Dvorak Slawisher Tanz No. 2. Mintz makes you think of the old country. He plays the low notes in high positions, heavy on trills and Russian slides to double stops. In the juiciest piece--Recitativo and Scherzo Caprice op. 6, written in the style of Ysaye--Mintz plays his solo. He digs too much, overemphasizes the triple stops and phrases the Presto poorly. It is messy and out of tune in the final pizzicato passage.

The one piece that sounds American--Kreisler's Syncopation--sounds like Scott Joplin's "Ragtime." Mintz plays it well, but exerts too much pressure in spots.

One would have liked to hear Praeludium and Allegro (written in the style of Pugnani), Schon rosmarin or the cadenz to the Beethoven Concerto instead of the numerous Kreisler arrangements of other composers' works. The other pieces on the record are not worth the time or money. Any performance of Kreisler pieces (except Eugene Fodor on RCA Red Seal, 1977), will capture the flavor of this sentimentalist. Perlman plays a great Praeludium and Allegro.

And although Kreisler became the richest musician ever performing his pieces, it is unlikely Mintz will do the same.