Master musician combines passion and experience in two contrasting concertos
THE STRAD RECOMMENDS
The Strad Issue: April 2025
Description: Master musician combines passion and experience in two contrasting concertos
Musicians: Renaud Capuçon (violin) Suisse Romande Orchestra/Daniel Harding
Works: Barber: Violin Concerto. Sibelius: Violin Concerto
Catalogue number: WARNER CLASSICS 9029505852
Renaud Capuçon gives subtle contours to the opening of Sibelius’s Violin Concerto, firmly played and using neat portamento to imbue it with a touch of warmth; he continues the opening paragraph in fine style. His bowing is powerful, swooping through the arabesques and gathering momentum decisively toward the tutti. The cadenza is immaculate, a thrilling affair, played with theatrical flair and gleaming tone.
The opening G-string melody of the central Adagio di molto is rich and strong, its intensity enhanced by the close-in recording. In the finale, Capuçon dispatches the technical demands of its opening with swaggering authority. Altogether it’s a performance of flashing energy and irresistible momentum.
Capuçon brings a tinge of tender, autumnal nostalgia to the beginning of Barber’s concerto and builds the pace steadily to the dramatic, filmic tutti outburst of the un poco agitato, before tripping neatly through the staccato arpeggio passages to the jaunty second subject. The slow movement is thoughtful, internalised, but full of intent, and Capuçon rattles off the devilish moto perpetuo finale with extrovert brio, which is pretty much what the doctor ordered.
He is well partnered by Daniel Harding and the Suisse Romande Orchestra, with some characterful solo wind playing in the Barber. The recording is warm, with Capuçon to the fore.
TIM HOMFRAY
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