Instruct: Classify a given Amazon review as either positive or negative.
Query: a violinist's observation

As a professional violinist, and one who has met Stern and played in orchestras accompanying him as soloist, the skuttlebutt within the profession ranks him as a great albeit erratic soloist, a view to which I also subscribe.Most violinists I've met, however, consider this the best recording of the Bartok Concerto ever made. The other contender is that by Ivry Gitlis. (#2 that is; the first concerto is really the composer's "Two Portraits" renamed, a pleasant but unsensational opus).The collaboration is about perfect, and Stern is here at his absolute best. His affinity for modern music is uncanny, and I would also recommend his Bartok Rhapsodies and the Berg Concerto, as well. It doesn't get better.