[DSD][OF] Bruch - Scottish Fantasy in E-flat major, Op. 46 & Hindemith - Violin Concerto (David Oistrakh, London Symphony, Jascha Horenstein, Paul Hindemith) - 1962/2014 (Classical/Orchestral/Violin)

AllMusic review of the CD:
Could an LP ever have sounded this good? It seems hard to believe. How could the sound from a piece of plastic carved with a single circular groove possibly be as warm, as deep, as clear, & as true as the sound from this CD? Yet it must be so, for surely no piece of plastic inscribed with gazillions of 0s-&-1s could somehow contrive to improve on the 1962 Decca Kingsway Hall original recorded on half-inch analogue tape at 15 inches per second by producer Erik Smith & engineer Kenneth Wilkinson? Thus, this 2006 JVC remastering produced by Winston Ma & engineered by Paul Stubblebine cannot really be an improvement on the original – can it?
If this disc coupling David Oistrakh’s magical & magisterial performances of Bruch’s Scottish Fantasia & Hindemith’s Violin Concerto is no better than a pristine copy of the original Decca LP, we’ll never know, but as things stand, this disc is as close to ideal as is imaginable. Listen just to the last few bars of the Introduction to Bruch’s Fantasia – the physical sense of Oistrakh’s ineffably beautiful tone is palpable. The performances themselves are superlative – Jascha Horenstein leads the London Symphony in a detailed accompaniment for Oistrakh’s expressive performance of Bruch’s Fantasia, & Paul Hindemith himself leads the LSO in an aggressive accompaniment for Oistrakh’s muscular performance of his own concerto – but anyone with the slightest interest in the art of recording and remastering owes it to themselves to hear this disc.
AudAud:
While both are fine virtuoso concertos which show off to great advantage the rich and fluid tone of the Russian violinist (which I always preferred to Heifetz’ tone), they are certainly not violin concerto warhorses. Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 is often heard in concert programs, but during George Bernard Shaw’s stint as a music reviewer, he observed that this Fantasia – which makes free use of Scottish folk melodies – was superior to both of Bruch’s actual violin concertos.
Having the Hindemith concerto conducted by the composer makes it a very special historical statement. The first movement of the work shows the composer’s free use of atonal melodies, without subscribing to the rigors of the 12-tone serialists. It strikes me as the sort of Hindemith which has made the composer the butt of some musicians’ humor. However, the composer’s tremendous eclecticism is demonstrated in the other two movements. The second begins with a lovely and expressive melodic line, but is interrupted by loud military-sounding music which seems to come from the war years in Germany (Hindemith was smart enough to escape by emigrating to the U.S. before the war). The lengthy finale provides a showcase of skilled playing on Oistrakh’s part, with strong melodic content of an often Romantic bent.