Violin Concertos of Mendelssohn & Bruch

by Robert McDuffe / Scottish Chamber Orchestra

To be competitive, a new recording of this popular coupling should offer something out of the ordinary, and this one does. McDuffie plays with calm, unhurried assurance, but also with a winningly wiry intensity. The pleasant surprise is in Joseph Swensen's extraordinarily acute accompaniments, in which the smaller orchestral forces are conducive to extreme textural clarity and on-the-button accents. Obviously, Swenson--a virtuoso who has of late forsworn the violin for conducting--provides McDuffie with the kind of support he himself would have wanted. The results are very refreshing musically, and should intrigue listeners who are familiar with the dozens of first-class recordings of these concertos already available. Telarc's sound is clean, and very well balanced. --Paul Turok