Violin Concertos

There are many good recordings of the major violin concertos: I like Stern in the Dvorak, there are many for the Beethoven, I like Michael Rabin in the Paganini 1st, etc. For the "Butterfly Lovers" there was a recording put out by Hong Kong (HK-1003) with Takako Nishizaki as soloist. It won the Hong Kong Gold Disc Award in 1981. The sound quality is good. Nishizaki is a very fine violinist who was "tied for first place" with Pinchas Zuckerman for the Leventritt Award in 1964.

I meant to add some other concerti as well: I have always enjoyed the Mozart concerti (there is a pretty good low price set available with Arthur Grumiaux playing); there are the two Bruch Concerti (actually one is the Scottish Fantasy) with Heifetz; Heifetz' recording of the Prokofieff and the Sibelius are memorable; I also like the Brahms with Christian Ferras; the Bach concerti with Oistrakh, and the Wieniawski D minor with Rabin.

I hope you don't mind me suggesting a different composer. I just love this recording: BACH. VIOLIN CONCERTOS.DOUBLE CONCERTOS.GRUMIAUX HOLLIGER.KREBBERS/ PHILIPS 420 700-2

For the composers you list, here are performances with good sound quality that I enjoy...

Beethoven -
Giulini/CSO, Perlman -vn, EMI
Munch/BSO, Heifitz -vn, RCA (Classic Records reissue)

Mendelsohn -
Munch/BSO, Heifetz -vn, RCA (Classic Records reissue)

Paganini -
Foster/RPO, Perlman -vn, EMI

Saint-Saens -
Foster/LSO, Chung -vn, Decca/London

Tchaikovsky -
Wallenstein/LSO, Perlman -vn, Chesky reissue
Reiner/CSO, Heifetz -vn, RCA (Classic Records reissue)

Great recommendations. I would like to thank everybody and hope there are some more to come, not limited to the composers I originally listed. The reason I only listed a few is because I have seen some earlier discussions from Audiogon and AudioAsylum forum and have already tried some of their recommedations. Most CD's I bought, however, were from young generation-Shaham, Hahn, Chang, Mutter, Chee-Yun, Bell, etc. I'll start exploring some earlier work, especially those by Heifetz. I like Perlman too. Looks like some the major record companies start to rematerer more of Heifetz's work. Twl, thank you for recommending Khachaturian's work. I'll try that. I just started listening to his Spartacus. Kweifi, thank you for your recommendation on Takako Nishizaki's work. I'll order one from web store. I hope one day somebody is going to put it on a XRCD.