Barber, Bruch

Album review

There is no shortage of recordings of the music on this album; the Bruch Violin Concerto in G minor, Op. 26, in particular, is one of the most often recorded violin works in the classical canon. However, this one is a standout in several ways. Start with the presence of Adagio appassionato for violin and orchestra, Op. 57, of Bruch, who pleaded with performers to play some of his other violin-and-orchestra works; it is lovely and not often heard. The grand finale is the Souvenir d'Amérique, Variations on "Yankee Doodle," Op. 17, to which Esther Yoo gives an appropriate level of over-the-topness. Yet this just serves to point up the careful approach Yoo brings to the two big concertos. There is a flavor of swinging for the fences here; Yoo (and really the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, with which she collaborates here for the first time) is not a household name, but she stretches herself to the limit here with impressive results. Consider the famed opening of the Bruch concerto, where she takes a deliberate, operatic approach that contrasts with the raw brilliance of readings from the violin golden age. She is capable of brilliance aplenty as well; her top register rings throughout this concerto as few others do, but she doesn't let the concerto turn into a wave of schmaltz. In the Barber concerto, she switches gears completely, moving into a warm, lyrical mode. It is a rewarding recording that will reveal new things on multiple hearings, and it has a rare quality of personal involvement from the violinist. Deutsche Grammophon's engineers make a strong case for Henry Wood Hall as the most acoustically interesting of London's major venues.

© James Manheim /TiVo