![]() ![]() The reason I say that is because to my ears those Thirties 78s more approximate Hahn’s own predominantly lyrical style than Heifetz’s later recordings where intensity levels are pushed up a rung or two. For example, Hilary Hahn opting for Jascha Heifetz’s earlier, pre-war recordings of Saint-Saëns and Sarasate showpieces rather than his more pungent, post-war versions. Some choices are rather telling, or at least they seem so to me. ![]() That’s an area where sensitive critics and musicians nearly always agree: you sense the glow of recognition at the mere idea of (to mention just a few of the miracles chosen by our artists) Schnabel’s or Furtwängler’s Beethoven, Fischer-Dieskau singing Schubert’s Winterreise or the Callas/de Sabata Tosca. The common ground that musical performers and critics share concerns the basic essentials of interpretative genius, not least a discernible musical personality, respect for – rather than slavish adherence to – the score, a musical sense of timing, a feeling for period and appropriate style and, more vital than anything, that indefinable quality that signals a symbiotic rapport between the performer and the composer. And a musician doesn’t need to agree with you on specific performers or recordings. Listening itself is an art, and when, as a music journalist or critic, you set out to interview performing musicians about repertoire or about other performers, you will very quickly be shown the door if your own musical intuition is found wanting. The 50 best Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart recordings.The 50 best Ludwig van Beethoven recordings.OK, this may sound high-handed to a fault, the defensive credo of a musically ungifted scribe, but search the back issues of Gramophone and you’ll find that virtually all the most perceptive commentary on music has been written by “musicians” who either don’t play, or if they do, don’t play in public. ![]() Being a musician is not the same as being a performer: there are many competent amateur players who lack even an iota of musicianship, while attentive listeners who aren’t endowed with the technique or the coordination necessary to achieve an adequate performance often feel the music more acutely than those who actually play it. Do crime novelists need to be criminals, or theatre critics playwrights? I pose the question because so often lay listeners assume that performers and critics hear music in the same way, and very often they don’t. "Do you play yourself?” There can’t be a music critic in the land who hasn’t at one time or another been asked that very question. ![]() Below, contributing editor and reviewer Rob Cowan muses on why artists and critics might choose differently. Here we reveal the 250 greatest classical recordings, as selected for Gramophone by more than 30 leading musicians. ![]()
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