Opheli Gaillard Concerto No. 2 in g Minor

Bruch’s tribute to Scotland was written before he had set foot in the country. Even so, the Scottish Fantasy suggests someone steeped in the folk songs of the Highlands, with traditional Scottish melodies threaded throughout. Joshua Bell, soloist and conductor, leads his orchestra through the fens with playing of exquisite dramatic sensitivity and a golden tone, resulting in a rich, characterful portrait of the wild landscape. They also put their attention to the Violin Concerto No. 1, a work they first recorded together in 2000. There’s a good deal more sureness to the playing from both parties this time, underlining these musicians’ burgeoning artistic relationship.

Serge Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto might never have seen the light of day had it not been for hypnosis: before the twenty-seven-year-old composer began work on it, he was on his last legs – financially, artistically and psychologically. Dr Nikolay Dahl hypnotised his patient every day, whispering to him: ‘You will write your concerto. You will work with great fluency. The concerto will be of excellent quality.’ The creative block disappeared, and the concerto’s premiere in Moscow in 1901 was a triumph for Rachmaninov, who played the solo part himself. Anna Vinnitskaya says she feels ‘a spring-like atmosphere’ in this work: throughout there is a sense of movement, of awakening. The music passes through the most contrasting psychological landscapes, but moves towards clarity and light. Rachmaninov composed the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in 1934, ten years before his death. Brahms, Liszt, Lutosławski and Andrew Lloyd Webber are among the remarkable roll call of composers inspired by Paganini’s theme.

Rachmaninov's work is one of the emblematic works of the late Romantic period, with almost every aspect of the style. If one were to describe the work with a single simile, the conquest of infinity would come to mind. This can be interpreted equally as the work's emotional dimensions, its dazzling virtuosity, its composer's exacting demands, its consistent dramaturgical contrasts, its theatricality in the best sense and, of course, its captivating realisation of one of the most puzzling questions of Romanticism: glorification.

Rachmaninov's work is one of the emblematic works of the late Romantic period, with almost every aspect of the style. If one were to describe the work with a single simile, the conquest of infinity would come to mind. This can be interpreted equally as the work's emotional dimensions, its dazzling virtuosity, its composer's exacting demands, its consistent dramaturgical contrasts, its theatricality in the best sense and, of course, its captivating realisation of one of the most puzzling questions of Romanticism: glorification.

Dvořák’s chamber music is amongst the most extensive and significant of the 19th-century and the four surviving piano trios embody his command of the form. The first two were written in rapid succession, with No. 1 in B flat major marrying Schubertian lyricism with Slavic inflexions, serenity with joy. No. 2 in G minor is rather more classically conceived though it shares the same formal structure as No. 1 and exudes a similar quotient of lyric beauty.