Monday 25 April 2011

In his memoirs published in the 1950s, the usually waspish Carl Flesch praises Erica Morini, commenting only that her technical style now sounds "outdated". Listening again to the recent Audite release of Morini in Berlin in 1952, the "outdated technical style" does provide fascinating glimpses as to the sheer range of violin technique, particularly in the small salon pieces by Brahms, Wieniawski and Kreisler. Morini's bow flashes and dashes, her tone production is subject to infinite variations and colours, her spiccato and staccato are jaw-dropping, and her trills belong to an age where such things were taken seriously. There is none of the smooth, luscious, son-filé sound one would get from violinists such as Joshua Bell or Tasmin Little in these pieces. Every collection of violin recordings needs Erica Morini, a violinist well out of fashion, but a major 20th century violinist never the less.

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