This is a very interesting discussion and very much to my liking. I, too, have some dissident views which I don't usually have an opportunity to express. Here's my two bob:
Heifetz: Generally don't listen to him but what I have heard leaves me stone cold. He plays everything too fast in my opinion. I once read on the fingerboard where someone said about his playing "he plays like a machine with the passion of a dead cat" - it sums up my feelings completely. The only recording of his that I can say that I actually like is his Schubert Ave Maria.
Menuhin: I like some of his early video-recordings but after the war he went completely off track as far as I'm concerned. I can't even stand to listen to most of his later recordings.
Oistrakh: I love Oistrakh because he is the type of violinist that I love, having a warm beautiful sound although his recordings of Brahms and Tchiak didn't grab me at all. But his recording of the Bach Double concerto with Igor is one of my favourites.
Perlman: The first violinist that I knew by name and to this day he is still my favourite. I am still amazed by the beauty of his playing everytime I listen to it. For me, the ultimate in violin playing (I'm not talking about the actual music itself) can be found on his Together album with Placido Domingo and his Klezmer album, In the Fiddler's House. Also, his Sarasate Carmen Fantasy and Paganini violin concerto have never and will never be equalled - let alone surpassed. Unfortunately though, as we all know, no one stays young forever.
Zukerman: I don't like him personally so as a result his playing doesn't appeal to me much. (Personality has a rather big part in whether I like someone or not, which in a very minor way contributes to the reason that I don't like Heifetz) I saw Zukerman in a masterclass last year and from my own experience of just watching his manner with the students and with me when I asked him for a photograph I don't think he is such a nice person (with all due respect to DavidK, you know him a lot better than I do). About his playing, I know for a fact that he can play virtuoso showpieces like Paganini and Wieniawski because I have seen him do it - in the context of a masterclass - but I prefer his being able to play them and NOT playing them to someone else playing them when they shouldn't be - like Nadja Salerno-Sonnenburg.
Nadja S-S would have to be one of the worst violinists I have ever heard. I find her extremely irritating as a person and as a violinist. She's one of those people who is constantly belittling everyone else in order to feed her own ego. Her violin playing is terrible as far as I'm concerned - she doesn't even have a clear tone. Along with Anne Sophie Mutter and Sarah Chang, she is one of the three violinists who I can't believe ever got famous. A-SM at least has good looks but what have the other two got?
Anne-Sophie Mutter: Over-rated in my opinion and terrible violinist. A description I read that was given to Leila Josefowitz intended as a compliment sums up my feelings towards her very well. "She plays like a pit-bull trying to rip someone's arm off." Obviously, I don't intend it as a compliment.
Sarah Chang: The thing I find most irritating about her is the way everyone seems to think she is 'technically perfect'. Apart from everything else, she is NOT technically perfect, I heard her perform the Tchaik and it was full of wrong notes and mistakes all the way through. There were times when she was pushing down with the bow so hard the sound cracked. And she DOESN'T always play with impeccable intonation as I have so often heard it said.
Maxim Vengerov: Of all the "young" and "modern" violinists, excluding Gil Shaham, Maxim is the one who impresses me the most. While he isn't strictly a violinist in the style that I like best (Perlman, Oistrakh, Shaham), there is nothing about him or his playing that offends me except for his outrageous performing manner.
There are a lot of other violinists that I don't like but I couldn't be bothered writing about. These include Midori, Joshua Bell and NIGEL Kennedy. My other favourite violinist is Gil Shaham. That in itself is a dissident view on this board.
Anyway, having said all of the above, I'm not saying that any of the afore-mentioned violinists can't play the violin - to say such a thing would be preposterous. Also, I am not suggesting that I could do it better than any of them, or indeed half as good, my critisms and observations are simply coming from me as a listener and a watcher.
