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Rating: 
Summary: A great performance - A poor recording
Review: I'n not that good a violinist, so I'll leave the analysis of Repin's playing to others. It certainly was impressive enough for me, along with the orchestra. But the audio recording was poor. I had to turn the volume up to a ridiculous level to hear the featured violinist, and then turn it back down once the orchestra came in only to drown him out. Maybe the intent was to duplicate the live performance sound, but for a DVD recording this was a poor effort in my opinion. Compare this to the DVD of Vengerov performing Sibelius with the Chicago Symphony where the audio was excellent. Also, there was a segment where the video was shot from the back of the orchestra looking toward the conductor. I guess the idea was to give you a musician's eye view, but it ended up just being an annoyance as someone's bow kept darting in and out of the shot right in front of the camera. It looked like an outtake to me, but it was left in the video for a minute or two. Still scratching my head over that one. I would have liked a little more with this DVD ... say some background on Prokofiev, the symphony, the soloist, the building ... anything.
Rating:
Summary: A great performance - A poor recording
Review: I'n not that good a violinist, so I'll leave the analysis of Repin's playing to others. It certainly was impressive enough for me, along with the orchestra. But the audio recording was poor. I had to turn the volume up to a ridiculous level to hear the featured violinist, and then turn it back down once the orchestra came in only to drown him out. Maybe the intent was to duplicate the live performance sound, but for a DVD recording this was a poor effort in my opinion. Compare this to the DVD of Vengerov performing Sibelius with the Chicago Symphony where the audio was excellent. Also, there was a segment where the video was shot from the back of the orchestra looking toward the conductor. I guess the idea was to give you a musician's eye view, but it ended up just being an annoyance as someone's bow kept darting in and out of the shot right in front of the camera. It looked like an outtake to me, but it was left in the video for a minute or two. Still scratching my head over that one. I would have liked a little more with this DVD ... say some background on Prokofiev, the symphony, the soloist, the building ... anything.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the Super Stars to Come
Review: My first impression is, other than a great technique, which is a commonplace among Russian musicians anyway, Repin also possesses an extremely beautiful tone full of colours and emotions with a good balance of grace and intensity that is rare not only amongst violinists of his age but of all ages. He might well be more promising than Maxim Vengerov. This is Prokofiev, not Bach nor Mozart, nor any classical piece, one would tend to say Repin's treatment is a bit too classical. Repin is so young, in early twenties? In depth he is certainly better than Kissin on the piano. He certainly deserves a closer watch. And he definitely deserves a 5 stars to start with.
Rating: 
Summary: interesting to watch, less interesting for your ear
Review: The first violin concerto by Prokofiev is a great masterpiece. It is very virtuous and hard to play correctly (interpretation). It's interesting to watch somebody play it owing to its difficulties but I don't like the way Repin plays it at all, it's not very intelligent and sounds like he learned very well technically from his teacher but without any personal thoughts, feelings or empathy for the piece itself. Saw him live once play #1 by Shostakovitch which was little better compared to this one but still played in a very rough way. (Compare to recordings by Mintz or Stern that you'll find on CD).
Another thing I have to criticise: When the soloist plays the most interesting parts of the concerto, the camera goes to the tubas and other members of the stage to show them or tapes Repin from his back where you can't see a damned thing!
Rating:
Summary: a really good DVD to own
Review: Well, I have to say that it is hard for me to be 100% objective in rating this DVD because Repin is one of my favourite living musician-violinists. I have seen him playing this piece live a few years ago and it was just gorgeous. I admit it was so much more amazing than the performance on this DVD. But I am happy that he plays more and more beautiful as he gets older and this DVD performance is undoubtedly a great one. It is a treat to have Prokofiev's delightful Classical Symphony and the absolutely stunning First Violin Concerto on the same DVD. Svetlanov was great. The orchestra is in a fine shape (though I am not too impressed by them, but they do have their own colour and listening to a Russian orchestra play Russian music is always worthwhile). The only thing I found amusing was the first flute's make-up. Check it out!
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