Deryk Barker wrote:

>John Smyth ([log in to unmask]) wrote:
>
>>Gramophone data base for positive reviews of HIP recordings.  Can anyone
>>second the magazine's positive review of Monica Huggett's performance on
>>Virgin?
>
>I haven't heard Huggett on record but I've heard her perform 3 of them live
>and would recommend her unhesitatingly.

I have her record and find it quite disappointing.  There are technical
flaws (which I don't mind too much) and somehow she sounds like she is
wrestling with the music (which in some parts, especially the famous
Chaconne, may be an assett sometimes) and interpretation-wise I found it
sort of *flat*.  Rachel Podger and Lucy van Dael (cheap on Naxos) are a
different proposition.  I think both are right up there with the best of
non-HIP performances (Milstein, Szigeti, Grumiaux, Heifetz a.o.).  Podger
has more *flowing lines*, so to speak while Van Dael is more austere, more
in the spirit of Leonhardt, one might say.  I wouldn't want to be without
either of these.

Philip