Review: Itzhak Perlman - The Complete Warner Classics Edition

With 78 CDs covering recordings made from the early 1970s through the digital era, this Warner edition offers a comprehensive survey of Itzhak Perlman’s studio career, released in celebration of his 80th birthday. It documents his work across concertos, sonatas, chamber collaborations, and lighter projects, giving listeners an unusually complete view of one of the defining violinists of the late 20th century.

The Warner Classics Edition

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Perlman’s sound is unmistakable: generous, glowing, and built on continuous vibrato. His style reflects a tradition in which beauty of tone outweighed historical considerations. In Baroque repertoire this can come as a surprise, especially in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, where the long-breathed phrasing and sustained sonorities stand at a distance from the brisker, more transparent textures that dominate performance today. Rather than adapting to later fashions, Perlman consistently played with the same emphasis on warmth and lyricism.

The collection essentially covers the entire core violin repertoire. All the major concertos are represented (among them Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, and Sibelius) and are joined by solo recordings as well as a substantial body of chamber music. At the same time, the set goes beyond the canon. Perlman recorded Scott Joplin rags in the 1970s and performed works by André Previn. Another memorable programs are Familiar Jewish Melodies and A Tribute to Jascha Heifetz, with Samuel Sanders at the piano.

Some repertoire appears more than once, reflecting the span of Perlman’s career across analogue and digital eras. The Brahms Violin Concerto, for instance, exists here both in the analogue version with Giulini and in a digital one with Barenboim, each excellent in its own way. The Bruch and Tchaikovsky concertos appear twice, the Mendelssohn concerto three times, and so on. Though the remakes do not reveal significant changes in Perlman’s interpretation (in fact, they show a remarkable consistency), they point to different approaches by the conductors and orchestras with whom he collaborated.

Itzhak Perlman (image: ©️ Masterclass.com)

Among the highlights are performances long regarded as reference points. Bach’s complete set of Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin are still as impressive as they were when they first appeared in the last 1980’s. Perlman’s Paganini 24 Caprices balance flawless technique with restraint, avoiding empty virtuosity. His Brahms Violin Concerto with Giulini that was mentioned and the Double Concerto with Yo-Yo Ma and Barenboim stand among the finest modern accounts. The Beethoven piano trios with Vladimir Ashkenazy and Lynn Harrell remain a top recommendation. More recent is the recital with Martha Argerich (CD 78), where her combustive spontaneity draws out a more volatile, responsive side of Perlman than usual.

The set also offers a few discoveries. Perlman’s commitment to contemporary composers such as Earl Kim and Robert Starer (CD 41) broadens the scope of the box beyond the European mainstream. Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Paul Ben-Haim’s violin concertos (CD 62) are terrific, and Perlman chamber collaborations, in general, often overshadowed by the concerto discs, reveal a more direct and personal kind of music-making. These less familiar items give the set a dimension that extends beyond the expected pillars of the violin repertoire.

Deutsche Grammophon has also released a smaller Perlman edition for the violinist’s 80th birthday. The advantage of that set lies in the inclusion of some recordings that are also regarded as top recommendations; The complete Beethoven violin sonatas with Ashkenazy are a good example, as well as works missing from the Warner set, such as Mozart’s complete set of violin concertos (Warner includes only the Third) and the violin sonatas of Debussy and Ravel. Despite these distinguished collaborations, the DG set is less comprehensive and uneven in quality. Warner’s edition, by contrast, presents the violinist at his most consistent and authoritative.

The Warner albums are reproduced with their original covers, while the accompanying booklet includes an essay by Tully Potter and a full discography, with each cover listing the recording sessions in detail.

Ultimately, this collection documents the strengths of Perlman’s artistry. It captures a style of violin playing that was dominant in the second half of the 20th century, where sentiment, tonal richness, and lyrical phrasing carried greater weight than stylistic accuracy. For anyone interested in understanding that tradition, and in exploring a discography that covers the violin’s central repertoire while also branching into less familiar terrain, this edition provides a thorough and often revealing experience.