De Sabata's Beethoven Fifth

Victor de Sabata's performances usually emancipate us from the bondage of tasteless routine.

Fire and passion are not words alien to his music, and in fact they form an integral part of his.

Nathan Milstein is a violinist I really adore. I remember fondly the tone he recounted his being called, "the  Black sea boy", in a video. His singing and mellow tone in his violin playing is unmistakable.

Here we have a very nice Brahms violin concerto. The finale is particularly delectable.

The Beethoven Fifth opens with an understated motif, and I ask myself, "Is it de Sabata?" But when the music unfolds and the tympani comes on, the fire and the rage start. The musical flow is fluent without any annoying nuisance. The real outburst is saved for the Finale, when the glorious music of Beethoven is portrayed vividly and colourfully. This reading is not as fierce as his Eroica, yet no less satisfying. The only undoing is the rather muffled string sound, which may account for an apparent lack of incisiveness so typical of de Sabata.