Shlomo Mintz performances are just out of human proportions….all nuances and musical problems are easy and masterfully resolved and the product is the best ever set on record.

Initially conceived as a moral and artistic response to human suffering, violinist Edna Michell's Compassion also became a touching tribute to her mentor and source of inspiration, Yehudi Menuhin, on his death in 1999. The 15 compositions commissioned by Michell for the project revolve around the themes of suffering and charity in fairly abstract or suggestive ways, with few programmatic, religious, or political points made beyond the allusive titles. As a practical matter for curious listeners, this CD is a comprehensive sampler of contemporary musical trends, and the leading lights of two generations of composers are generously represented in the CD's 80 minutes. Established figures such as Karel Husa, Lukas Foss, György Kurtág, Hans Werner Henze, Wolfgang Rihm, Philip Glass, John Tavener, Steve Reich, and Iannis Xenakis share the program with rising composers Shulamit Ran, Chen Yi, Yinam Leef, Betty Olivero, Poul Ruders, and Somei Satoh.

I have already reviewed three new versions of the Franck Sonata this year, and have few reservations in placing this splendidly polished CD at the top of the list, especially whilst taking into account the sensible coupling. As it stands the Chung/Lupu Decca LP would be a little expensive if transferred without additional works to the CD format, since the Debussy performance lasts for only 15 minutes or so. Their performances are more musically impressive than the newcomers; in the Franck Chung displays greater temperament than Mintz and certain passages are handled with greater expressivity for instance, the obbligato episode in semiquavers in the third movement.

In the 41 - year gap between these two sonatas Fauré, increasingly beset by deafness, withdrew into a more private, recondite world all his own. The Second, in consequence, has never enjoyed the popularity of the First—and in fact was conspicuous by its absence from the CD catalogue until this welcome new release. Collectors may recall that when Lydia Mordkovitch and Gerhard Oppitz recorded the First for Chandos they preferred to couple it with Richard Strauss's early Sonata in E flat. Comparison of the two teams in the A major Sonata, Op. 13, leaves me in no doubt that the newcomers would be my first choice. In saying that, I don't want to underestimate Mordkovitch. But with her fine-spun, silken tone and sensitively tapered phrasing she is far too often overpowered by Oppitz, who in the resonant acoustic of St Luke's Church, Chelsea, emerges not only too loud but also rather too often the victim of his own over-generously used right pedal. The Cologne venue accorded to Mintz and Bronfman is kinder: though anything but timid Bronfman preserves far greater textural clarity, and never allows his piano to outweigh Mintz's violin unless at the composer's own behest.(Gramophone, 1/1988)

I can pretty much award any playing of the Brahms Violin Concerto with a 4 to 5 star rating even before I hear the very first note, IF, we have a soloist and conductor such as this combo, Shlomo Mintz and Claudio Abbado. A quick glance at the CD cover and you are struck by at least two things. Number one, these two artists are refreshingly youthful in appearance, and that is nice to see once again, as the camera caught Maestro Abbado before he was struck by stomach cancer, in 2000, which eventually led too his passing in January of this year, 2014, at age 80.