Schoenberg & Brahms: Violin Concertos

Album review

Family history and the present rise of intolerance to others belong to the story behind Jack Liebeck’s latest album. His pairing of the Brahms and Schoenberg Violin Concertos, recorded with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Andrew Gourlay, stands as a personal homage to works from classical music’s central European heartlands. It also reflects the experience of his Dutch/German Jewish family who suffered at the hands of the Nazis, but in particular his paternal grandfather Walter Liebeck.
In 1934 Walter Liebeck, Jack’s grandfather, fled the Nazis to find refuge in South Africa. Walter’s favourite piece of music was Brahms’ Violin Concerto and although he didn’t live to hear Jack play, his love of Brahms seems to be in the genes and now felt the time for Jack to record the work with Walter in his mind.
Alongside Brahms comes Schoenberg’s vast and highly virtuosic Violin Concerto (1934-36), written shortly after Schoenberg’s own departure from Germany in 1933. A fitting work reflecting that period, which seems still to have extraordinary relevance in today’s volatile world. © Orchid Classics