Recommendations of best violin recordings performances

Hard to satisfy both criteria, but for fantastic performances with sound good enough to avoid distraction, I vote for i) one of the later Heifetz recordings of the Tchaikovsky concerto; ii) Oistrakh playing Shostakovich; and iii) Milstein playing the Bach solo partitas and sonatas.

This is a bit more contemporary, but Ithazk Perlman and John William's "Cinema Serenade" is not only a sonic knockout, but a performance one is well. Take notice of "Schindler's List", on the video of this performance, Perlman's Stradivarius is covered in tears. Cheers!

anne sophie mutter- carmen fantasy-vivaldi four seasons-etc. she rules

Thanks so much for the response! I've listened to most of the recommendations on Amazon and they're all great!

I am trying to find a "reference" level recording which I can use to test the timbre of my system for strings. Any suggestions in this regard?

Tchaikovsky-Glazunov Violin Concertos, with Maxim Vengerov. Teldec D112008 (Claudio Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic.)