Niek Baar: Bruch, Schumann

The Strad Issue: December 2024

Description: An unorthodox pairing proves compelling

Musicians: Niek Baar (violin) Deutsche Radio Philharmonie/Christoph Poppen

Works: Bruch: Violin Concerto no.1. Schumann: Violin Concerto

Catalogue number: CHANNEL CLASSICS CCS46724

An odd couple, you might think, Bruch’s archetypal Romantic First Violin Concerto alongside Schumann’s sole essay in the form – a far tougher nut to crack. Niek Baar has the measure of both works, though, readily surmounting their contrasting challenges. As he rises from the open low G at the outset of the Bruch, a darkness is revealed at the core his tone, which subsequently lends individuality to the central slow movement. It’s all too tempting for violinists to relax into the warm embrace of this well-known music and ladle on the sugar, but Baar resists the easy sentimentality, keeping it just sufficiently on the move, the burnished caramel in his sound maintaining an edge of coolness that pays dividends in such a well-used and abused work.

Where Bruch’s orchestration provides a bed of sound over which a violinist can float in predominantly high-register solo writing, Schumann embeds his soloist into the orchestral texture, making him more a participant in the discourse than a protagonist in a dialogue. Baar proves equal to all the obstacles the composer throws at him, not least in the polonaise finale, which can sometimes seem to plod, but which he keeps light on its feet, proving himself an unwavering advocate of a concerto that has too often been considered a ‘problem piece’. Christoph Poppen and his German radio orchestra provide staunch accompaniment, offering a slightly soft-edged old-world sound in their Saarbrücken broadcasting hall.

DAVID THREASHER