Brahms / Tchaikovsky, Violin Concertos: Heifetz, Chicago Symphony, Reiner

Amazon.com This recording was one for the record books from the day it was made. There's an absolutely terrible 1940s movie called Carnegie Hall about a woman who works at the hall as an usher after the death of her drunken husband, supporting her young, musically talented son. She wants him to be a great classical artist, and he wants to play (gasp!) jazz. There are a million star turns by great musicians here, and two of them are Jascha Heifetz and Fritz Reiner, so you actually see them together. Reiner wears his habitual scowl, while Heifetz is coldly aristocratic; in fact, they look totally miserable. But what music they make! Thank God we can't see them on CD, and only have the incredible sound that they have left behind. --David Hurwitz