Beethoven Violin Concerto

Presentación del Álbum

Canadian violinist James Ehnes has become a hot property on both sides of the Atlantic, and anticipation quickly propelled his recording of Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61, to the top reaches of the charts. The recording displays the Ehnes strengths that have made him such a hit with British audiences: a clean line with a minimum of sentimentality, and strong control over the larger design of a movement. The recording eschews the more activist interpretations of the concerto and the other small works that accompany it, and returns to the sober, measured pace of older British readings. This pacing is placed mostly in the hands of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic under conductor Andrew Manze, with Ehnes pulling against it in various ways. Sample the beginning of the finale, with Ehnes' boldly shaped theme set off against rather metronomic treatment in the orchestra. It often works well, and in the slow movement Ehnes takes wing. The opening movement plods at times, although Ehnes' technical consistency carries him through, and the splashy Kreisler cadenzas do not quite match the rest of what he does. The lesser-known Romances for violin and orchestra of Beethoven and the still rarer Rondo for violin and orchestra, D. 438, of Schubert fill out the program effectively. Recommended, especially for those who like Ehnes' precise style.

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