Editorial Reviews

The song of the violin is among the most expressive of any instrument, able to caress a sustained line and utter a myriad of nuanced inflections. The moments when it does so, though often sandwiched between pyrotechnics, may be the most dearly loved parts of the repertory. VIOLIN FOR RELAXATION is packed with just such meditative and soothing excursions from the full span of the instrument's history. A variety of sweet-toned soloists lend their bows to all-time romantic favorites by Mendelssohn, Massenet, Rachmaninoff, and others. Anne Akiko Meyers contributes the album's centerpiece, Vaughan Williams's pastoral "The Lark Ascending," as well as the Japanese song "Aka-Tonbo." Representing the baroque is the Largo from J. S. Bach's Concerto for Two Violins, where Pinchas Zukerman and José-Luis Garcia provide a double dose of string harmony, and adding classical grace to the program is Vladimir Spivakov's performance of the slow movement from Mozart's Violin Concerto in A Major. Closing on a blissfully serene note, Messiaen's "Praise to the Immortality of Jesus" offers a rapturous song of devotion, played with timeless reverence by Maria Bachmann. Scott Paulin, Barnes & Noble

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