Nicolas Dautricourt: Delius, Elgar

The Strad Issue: March 2025

Description: An evergreen is refreshed with a Delian rarity

Musicians: Nicolas Dautricourt (violin) Capriccio Quartet, BBC National Orchestra of Wales/Frédéric Chaslin (piano)

Works: Delius: Suite for violin and orchestra (arr. Chaslin). Elgar: Violin Concerto; Salut d’amour

Catalogue number: CHANNEL CLASSICS CCS48725

Nicolas Dautricourt’s opening statement in Elgar’s Violin Concerto combines great tenderness with expressive warmth and urgency. He is not the first to ignore the a tempo marking at the semplice G major melody, but he extracts every ounce of feeling from it. The orchestra, consistently excellent, provides a heady, muscular account of the tutti before Dautricourt launches into the development with a compelling paragraph of excitement and nobility, beautifully played and tonally radiant.

The central Andante is a long-breathed reverie, leading steadily into emotional turbulence at its centre. He hurtles into the finale in sparkling style, relishing the punchy sforzandos in the opening flourishes. He is lithe and dancing, the athletic pyrotechnics often light and effortlessly virtuosic. Much of the cadenza is meditative: he is as likely to linger as to be animated (despite the composer’s instructions), and the ending is properly nobilmente.

After the elegant Salut d’amour there is a Delius rarity: his early Suite for violin and orchestra from 1888. The musicians could presumably have played it ‘straight’, but instead the conductor has arranged it for violin, string quartet and piano. It’s a passionate, frequently elegiac four-movement work, to which Dautricourt responds with rich, open-hearted playing. The recording is clear and well balanced.

TIM HOMFRAY