Paul Silverthorne:

>It's worth pointing out that Csaba Erdelyi's performance of his
>realisation of the Bartok Viola concerto, highly praised by Steve
>Schwartz, can be obtained from www.concordance.co.nz.  The copyright
>restrictions only prevent retail sales outside Australia and New Zealand.

Getting this was effortless for me.  I ordered it right after Steve
reviewed it and it arrived yesterday.  Since then I have played it three
times--in comparison with the Primrose and Yo Yo Ma recordings, and I
may have some detailed comments and comparisons later.  My first impressions
are that Erdelyi did an enormous amount of work on this, comparable to
what Serly did originally in getting this uncompleted work into performing
shape; and there are some exciting things in the performance.  But I am
not sure that for me it will ever supplant the Primrose/Serly performance
on Bartok Records, which I imprinted on decades ago and have loved ever
since.  For one thing, I'm not sure anyone's ever played the viola better
than Primrose (I also admire his Harold in Italy, with Beecham) and, old
as it is, the viola really sounds tremendous in that recording (close
miking in part, perhaps.) For another, even though there may be a fair
amount of Serly in there as well as Bartok, the original version seems
to hang together more than the new one--admittedly an impression based
on short acquaintance with the new version.  Finally, and this is where
my taste contrasts with Steve's, the Primrose/Serly has an appealing
mellowness to it--unusual for Bartok--which always struck me as valedictory
on Bartok's part.  (There is plenty of vigor too, and the mellowness is
probably in part a matter of the old monaural vinyl recording.) Just a
personal view.

Jim Tobin