One doesn't hear too much about Aaron Rosand these days. Long recognized as a mjor artist, he never seems to appear on anyone's list of great, or even favorite, violinists. His recordings, mostly on obscure labels, seldom get talked about. Yet twice running he has scored with the Utah Symphony, the first time three years ago in the Violin Concerto of Sir William Walton and Friday at Symphony Hall in that of Johannes Brahms.

Certainly Utah Symphony patrons are no strangers to this concerto, having hear it no fewer than four times in the past 10 years. Nonetheless this performance had something those didn't, namely a strikingly individual voice allied to a wonderfully comprehending view, which for my money made it the finest heard on this stage since Perlman's, and not noticeably inferior.From his trenchant entry in the opening movement, Rosand managed to balance smoothness, substance and virility. Here and there tone verged on the wiry and occasionally he bit hard, but only when the music called for it, such as in the gypsy accents of the finale.

Elsewhere the sound was wonderfully sweet, especially in the slow movement with its air of bittersweet nostalgia. Yet even here one was never in doubt as to the music's strength, or the solosit's, so that even such things as the trills and the assured harmonics of the first-movement cadenza were made to seem an integral part of the piece.

Beneath all this the orchestra under music director Joseph Silverstein offered exemplary support, from the deeply textured first-movement introduction to the jocund rhythms of the finale. Nor was there much to take exception to in their performances earlier in the evening of two very different works, Schubert's Symphony No. 4 in C minor and Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements, premiered by him with the New York Philharmonic in 1946. Judging from his recordings, the composer moved the latter a bit more sharply than did Silverstein on this occasion, especially the motor rhythms of the first movement and the fugal writing of the finale. Just the same the opening caught one up immediately, the piano accorded almost soloistic prominence. And even the strongly audible harp could not diminish the fanciful air of the Andante (turned out originally for, believe it or not, "The Song of Bernadette").

Even more impressive to my ears was the Schubert, perhaps the least successful of that composer's early symphonies. But from the portentious opening chord it was clear that Silverstein takes Schubert's subtitle, "Tragic," seriously and the result was an unusually dramatic reading in which the music's essential lyricism nonetheless shone through.

As did the darkness within the outward serenity of the Andante, succeeded by the robust vigor of the Minuet and C major resolution of the finale. Up till now I have never found the latter terribly convincing. But here it was alive with expectancy communicating a tension and classical strength unique in my experience.

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In sum, I wouldn't say the orchestra sounded any better than it has the past few weeks for George Cleve and David Zinman. But it didn't sound any worse, and interpretively there was at least as much to chew on.

Repeat performance

Perlamn (EMI), Heifetz (RCA), Oistrakh (EMI), Szeryng (RCA) and Mutter (DG) still top my list of available recordings of the Brhams Violin Concerto, with the recently reissued Neveu (EMI or PriceLess) of more than just historical interest.

Similarly among recordings of Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements the composer's incisively rhythmed CBS performance is still without peer, folloed by the more sumptuously recorded Dutoit (London). For the Schubert Fourth, try Marriner (Philips) or Wand (EMI).

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