The Goldmark A minor Concerto inspired what was surely Nathan Milstein's finest hour in the recording studio, a reading of the utmost refinement: warm, effortlessly brilliant and displaying that unmistakably suave, silken tone. The work itself – which is perhaps just a trifle overlong – recalls both Reger and Dvorak, with wistful melodies, lilting rhythms and much busy counterpoint (principally in the outer movements). Heifetz made a distinguished acoustic 78rpm recording of the slow movement (RCA, 11/94), but for most collectors over the age of 40 this 1957 version stood alone in allowing instant access to some charming music.
How delightful, therefore, to have – by way of an 'extra' bonus – a quarter-of-an-hour's worth of unpublished session takes, where Milstein exhibits the utmost patience (and technical consistency) in playing and replaying even the most taxing passages. Harry Blech directs a beautifully turned accompaniment, and one can only echo the sentiments of Hugh Bean who, reminiscing about these sessions in the context of Testament's excellent booklet, confesses ''that if a visitor from an alien planet asked me, 'What does a violin sound like?', I would want him to hear the second theme of the first movement – the innocence, the freshness and purity, the sheer simplicity that takes a lifetime to achieve.''
That 'innocence, freshness and purity' are equally apparent in the 1954 Symphonie espagnole, in spite of dry, NBC-style sound and an excessively close-up solo image. Vladimir Golschmann's conducting is every bit as distinctive as Blech's, especially in the Andante, where the St Louis strings exhibit impressive tonal lustre. This was Milstein's second recording of the piece (his first, under Ormandy, was for Amercian Columbia) and, like its predecessor, omits the work's tangy ''Intermezzo''. As a performance, it cuts a dashing profile, yet were I pressed to select a 'desert island' version, Huberman (EMI, 10/91) and the young Menuhin (Biddulph, 12/91 – plus the ''Intermezzo''), both of them pre-war and rather more passionate than Milstein, would vie for first place. Still, the present recording has real sparkle and provides a worthy disc companion for a superb Goldmark Concerto.'