When one considers that Erica Morini’s 60-year career on the concert platform brought her together with such orchestras as the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic and took her as far as New York’s Carnegie Hall, the number of recordings she left us is very small indeed. In order to obtain an idea of this violinist’s great talent, which she developed to perfection as one of the very first women to attend the Vienna Conservatory, it has generally been necessary to delve into the shellac record archive. And of course, such records crackle and hiss, thus ruining the listener’s pleasure. But now here is the remedy: a stereo recording of Brahms’s Violin Concerto which the 61-year-old Erica Morini recorded for the Westminster label. Her clean and highly differentiated timbre, her lyrical expression, technical perfection, and of course her very own thrilling esprit is marvellous to hear.
No matter whether the absolute Brahms fan tucks this LP under his pillow at night, or the collector stows it away in his cupboard, or even better lets it spin around on the turntable, this LP remains invaluable for its documentary and artistic value.

Recording: September 1956 at Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London, by Herbert Zeithammer
Production: Dr. Kurt List