Bruch Violin Concerto

Kennedy has shrewdly augmented the regular concerto coupling of Bruch and Mendelssohn with the rare Schubert work, and the result is a generous issue which on every front can be warmly recommended for exceptionally strong and positive performances, vividly recorded. The Rondo in A, D438, dating from 1816, the year of his Concertstuck in D for violin and orchestra, was originally written for solo violin accompanied by string quartet.

Mordkovitch and Wallfisch play with a good deal of spirit and poetry in the Double Concerto and the recording captures their attractive quality of tone very effectively, since they are placed at a reasonable distance from their microphones. The LSO is set a little too far back in the sound picture, and in a slightly cavernous acoustic which may exaggerate the impression of a slightly lacklustre routine orchestral contribution under Järvi.

Richard Hickox continues his excellent Bruch cycle with warm-hearted and forceful readings of the First Symphony and the Third Violin Concerto. Compared with Masur's slightly ramshackle Leipzig performance, Hickox and the LSO provide an extremely fresh sounding performance of the First Symphony. Many opening horn calls and some delightful woodwind solos add to the charm of a work, which should have a firmer hold on the orchestral repertoire. As regards tempi, Hickox is akin to James Conlon and his expansive Cologne performance (EMI) but Chandos' bloom depicts some wonderful playing from the LSO especially in the irresistible Allegro guerriero.

Randall Goosby presents his new album with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. He has recorded the popular Violin Concerto by Max Bruch and the two Violin Concertos by Florence Price. The album also includes Price's Adoration in an arrangement for string ensemble.

Award-winning violinist Jack Liebeck brings his impassioned tones, fulsome emotional display and formidable technique to the first of three albums of music by Max Bruch.

From the dozens and dozens of recordings availible for this piece, I have to say this is probably the best one I have ever heard. Especially from someone like me, who has about nine recordings of every violin concerto ever written. I have, among others, a Pearlman, Zukerman, and Mutter recording of this peice, yet this seemingly unknown recording has a unique characteristic: Ms. Suwanai's cleaniliness of the notes and preciceness of the music.

Perhaps I am too much a fan of Mordkovitch to be an unbiased reviewer… She and Wallfisch are taking their duos slower than Oistrakh and Fournier, than Stern and Rose and even than Szeryng and Starker. This gives this very much a feeling of a concerto, less feeling of a symphony with obligati violin and cello. With slow tempos, there is a risk of the structure falling apart. But I think so much beauty is won here, that I'm willing to sacrifice some structure; on an emotional level I find the result more moving, not less.

A highly versatile musician, Ulf Wallin has recorded a succession of discs for BIS, including music by Schoenberg, Schnittke, Janacek and Hindemith. Lately he has focussed on Romantic composers, resulting in an acclaimed recording of Schumann's complete works for violin and orchestra (Daily Telegraph: 'It's hard to imagine more sympathetic and insightful performances of these wonderful pieces'). Supported by the eminent Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin conducted by Okko Kamu, Wallin now offers a programme spanning some 30 years of the long career of Max Bruch.

I have often wondered whether Brahms was being somewhat disingenuous in claiming that the slow first movement of Bruch's Second Violin Concerto was 'intolerable for normal people'. With its radiant lyricism and powerful melodic ideas, this is surely one of Bruch's loveliest conceptions, on a par with the much better- known First Concerto. Yet performers certainly need to be aware of Bruch's specific tempo marking of Adagio non troppo if the movement isn't to drag unduly. Lydia Mordkovitch, taking over three minutes longer than the excellent rival version from Nai-Yuan Hu on Delos, just about avoids falling into this trap through the sheer intensity and wonderful range of colours in her playing, though the turgid contribution from Hickox and the LSO does little favour for Bruch's full-blooded orchestration.