Viktoria Mullova and
John Eliot Gardiner:
Mullova, a strong-toned, intense, and very virtuosic Russian violinist living in the West, an individualist without a trace of idiosyncrasy and a expressivist without a trace of sentimentality, and
Gardiner, a superb proponent of period instruments who's out of his depths with passionate expressivity, an excellent exponent of Handel and Bach who's over his head with Beethoven or Berlioz, a conducting collection of idiosyncrasies passing himself off as an interpreter and an amateur passing himself off as an individualist. What could they have to say to each other? At least in this 2002 recording of the Beethoven and Mendelssohn violin concertos, the answer is: nothing good.
Mullova is reserved, restrained, and almost reluctant, her tone contracted, her intensity constrained, and her virtuosity constricted.
Gardiner leads the
Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique in an instrumentally colorful but ultimately lax and soporific accompaniment. Together,
Mullova and
Gardiner turn in a pair of tepid and timid performances with only
Mullova's fiery and passionate performances of
Ottavio Dantone's cadenzas to the Beethoven concerto to make the disc worth hearing. Philips' sound is a little too reverberant and oddly empty.