Neither too nationalist nor too internationalist, this 1995 recording of
Béla Bartók's two violin concertos featuring
Thomas Zehetmair with
Ivan Fischer leading the
Budapest Festival Orchestra is just right. Austrian-born
Zehetmair has a fabulous technique, a warm but focused tone, and lively sense of rhythm, all of which make him an ideal
Bartók player. His interpretations are less about showing off then about digging in, and his performances are more about the music than they are about the musician. Hungarian conductor
Fischer and his Hungarian orchestra are not only up for the music in a technical sense, they are also down with the music in an emotional sense, and their accompaniments ground
Zehetmair's coolly flamboyant performances. Captured in white-hot sound that is almost too vivid for its own good, these performances deserve to stand among the finest ever recorded.