About this time, you're probably feeling a little bit like Ben Stein in Ferris Buehler's Day Off:"
"Somebody?.... Anybody?...."
Well, I'll help, since this piece is one of my "childhood friends," and one of a mere handful that I've taken seriously enough to acquire a pocket score of the work.
I was first introduced to this masterpiece via an "age-of-vinyl" recording by Isaac Stern & The Philadelphia Orchestra. That platter must have been donated prior to my move to New Jersey. Looking through my disc collection, I was a little suprised to find that I had 'only' two recordings of this piece. The relatively rare jewel among the pair is a version by Michael Rabin (preumably recorded before this artist was wholly beset by some personal demons) with the Philadelphia Orchestra (again), conducted by long-time Assistant Conductor William Smith. It's part of the 12-disc box "The Philadelphia Orchestra- The Centennial Collection."
Scarcely less important, in its own way, is a version on Seraphim [~Angel... ~EMI] by Nathan Milstein, with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, conducted by William Steinberg. At the time I purchased this disc (which has the Brahms VC as a a pairing) its price was less than $5(!), which puts it on my personal all-time "greatest value for money" list.
