Latin Church Music. - sound recording reviews

National Review, July 14, 1989 by Ralph de Toledano

The snobbery that once dismissed Tchaikovsky for his alleged indulgence in over-romantic huffery is disappearing as musical tastes change. Tchaikovsky once confessed that he frequently composed out of an "invincible inward impulse"-which seems to say: run up and down the stairs until you are out of breath and then knock off a symphony. But there was real emotion and lyricism in much of his writing, and if it was not computer-conceived, rant pis! So I commend to you his Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D Major, in spite of the drum-major conducting of Herbert von Karajan as he leads the great Vienna Philharmonic.

The reason: a superlative reading by the young Sophie-Anne Mutter, a soloist who moves from the classical to the romantic with absolute ease and perfect taste and who never lets a fine technique interfere with the music (Deutsche Grammophon 419 241-2).