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Title: Bach through rose-tinted glasses
Review: Some people approach this music emotionally and that's fine. I am in the other camp where I listen to it architecturally, i.e. the line, the phrasing, the implied counterpoint, &c., and let the emotions sink in later. In this sense this recording is not successful. You cannot doubt Perlman's technique and tone, but his very free take on phrasing and rhythm means the implied counterpoint is distorted and weakened, and the musical structure is obscured. Perlman's uniformly sweet and rich tone also means he does not distinguish among the independent voices of the implied counterpoint, and instead runs them together. The vibrato which he uses throughout also softens the musical phrasing as the articulations cannot be as sharp. The performances sounds very much like how the cadenzas of 19th century violin concertos are played, which does not happen to jive with my ideas of Bach.
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