Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61

Chronique

Violinist Daniel Lozakovich, signed to the Deutsche Grammophon label at 15, was just 19 when this reading of Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61, appeared in 2020. He was certainly the prodigy of the moment, and the Beethoven concerto, with its deceptively simple themes, is a common place for prodigies to be tripped up. It doesn't happen here. With the help of the firm hand of Valery Gergiev, leading the Munich Philharmonic, Lozakovich offers a genuinely fresh reading of the Beethoven concerto. It's not so much in the first movement, although Lozakovich and Gergiev render the broad strokes of the music cleanly. Lozakovich plays the Fritz Kreisler cadenza, which nicely sets up the rhythmic freedom to come in the slow movement. Here, the young artist is exceptional, adding both rubato and rhythmic articulation to the usually flowing melody. The finale brings a logical conclusion to the rhythmic relaxation of the middle movement as Lozakovich takes the folkish theme at a quick clip and injects a high level of tension. It adds up to a Beethoven violin concerto that's exciting, logically put together, and in every way wise beyond its performer's years. Lozakovich rings the curtain down with another unorthodox choice: a movement from one of Bach's unaccompanied sonatas for solo violin. This is something Kreisler himself might have admired, and Lozakovich is clearly one to watch.

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